o. 


^ii^a 


'^m^9*i^^ 


c/v.  ^yt^la^ri^^  C/^i^i^A^Ti^ 


C^i»t/»nu^  .^    ^Qa^eynuf 


Admiral  H.  Togo 


THE  JAPANESE  NATION 
IN  EVOLUTION 


STEPS  IN  THF  PROGRESS  OF  A 
GREAT   PEOPLE 


WILLIAM  ELLIOT  GRIFFIS,  D.I).,  L.H.D. 

FORMERLY    OF    THE    IMPERIAL    INIVERSITV    OF    JAPAN 

AUTHOR    OF    "THE    MIKADO's    EMPIRE,"     "JAPAN    IN    HISTORT, 

FOLK-LORE,    AND    ART,"    ETC.,    AND    "  COREA,    THE 

lUiRMlT   nation" 


*'RACE  IS   THE   KEY   TO  HISTORY^* 


NEW   YORK 

THOMAS   Y.   CROWELL   &   CO. 

PUBLISHERS 


gtf^«,R  r  MORS£  STErH€i» 


Copyright,  1907, 
By  THOMAS  Y,   CROWELL  &  COMPANY. 


Published,  Septbmbbb,  1907. 


in  admiration  of  japan  8  triumphs  in  peace 
(gkeatkr  even  than  those  in  war) 

THE    Al'THOR 

IN   THE   WORDS    OF   THE    CIVIL   ADMINISTRATOR  OF   FORMOSA) 

GIVES 

"THANKS    TO    THE 

GREAT    Gl'AHDIAN    SPIRIT 

WHO   THROUGH    UNBROKEN    AGES    HAS   CONTINUALLY 

GUIDED 

HIS    MAJESTY  THE    EMPEROR 

AND    EACH   ONE   OF    HIS   IMPERIAL   ANCESTORS  " 

^8  WELL  AS  OUR   OWN  SAVAGE   FOREFATHERS,  OUR   MEDIAEVAL 

SEERS,    AND     OUR     MODERN     LEADERS     INTO     THIS 

TWENTIETH     CENTURY,    SO     AUSPICIOUS     FOR 

THE  COMING  UNION  AND  RECONCILIATION 

OF   ORIENT    AND   OCCIDENT 

IN  WHICH 

JAPAN,   AMERICA,   AND   GREAT   BRITAIN 

ARE   TO   BEAR   A   NOBLE   PART 


514435 


PREFACE 


[easing  duty  to  acknowledge  ni^ 

itinual    debt    during    forty    years    to    those    who 

led  the  ore  and  furnished  the  raw  materials  of 

lolarship,  out  of  which  I  have  coined  some  of  the 

^er  opinions  I  send  forth  herewith  for  circulation. 

ice  I   have  dealt  much  with  origins,  I  am  most 

lebted  to  native  Japanese  scholars  who  have  co- 

jrated  with  me,  and  to  those  pioneers  who  not 

ly  opened  the  treasures  of  the  native  literature, 

with  critical  and  comparative  skill  have  appraised 

worth — Messrs.  Satow,  Aston,  and  Chamberlain. 

^e  Records  (Kojiki)  and  the  Nihongi  (Chronicles 

Japan),  written  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  eighth 

itury,    have    been    constantly    by   me.       To    the 

\   John   Batchelor,  who  has  made  the  realm  of 

LU   scholarship  his   own,  and   to   the  writers   in 

Iglish    and    German    for     the    Asiatic    Societies 

Japan,  I  am  deeply  indebted.     Other  authorities, 

iguists,   archaeologists,    ethnologists,    investiga- 

—  to  whom  I   am  obligated,  are  mentioned  in 

text,  and  to  these  and  to  any  that  may  be  un- 

led,  I  am  profoundly  grateful. 

the  pronunciation  of  Japanese  names  and  words, 

which  J  have  used  as  few  as  possible, — the 

itinental  or  Italian   system  of  vowel   sounds  is 

Every    vowel    and   consonant    is    sounded, 

vii 


viii  PREFACE 

g  being  hard.  There  is  virtually  no  accent,  nor 
need  there  be  any,  when  each  vocable  receives  proper 
attention. 

a  as  in  far  ai  as  in  aisle 

e   "    "  men  ei  "   "  weigh 

i    "    "  pin  ail  as  on  in  trout 

o   "    "  bone  a  flat  not  used 
u  "    "  truth 

As  this  book  treats  of  the  young  Japanese  nation, 
it  has  nothing  to  say  about  "gods,"  in  which  the 
author  has  no  belief,  and  of  which  he  knows  noth- 
ing. Nor  does  it  deal  much  with  figureheads  or 
impersonalities  of  any  sort,  but  only  with  human 
beings  who,  in  their  long  struggle  upward,  have 
been  led,  as  my  faith  is,  of  God.  As  He  had  an 
"Old"  testament  with  the  Hebrews,  and  also  with 
our  savage  forefathers,  so  with  the  children  of  Nip- 
pon has  He  made  a  covenant.  The  "  Old "  is  be- 
coming the  "New,"  and  the  spirit  of  the  Master 
who  came  "not  to  destroy  but  to  fulfill"  is  conquer- 
ing, slowly  but  surely,  the  brutish  savagery  that 
masks  itself  under  "  civilization  "  and  "  Christianity  " 
as  well  as  intrenched  "paganism."  In  the  potencies 
of  blood,  inheritances,  geographical  situation,  and 
advantages  in  the  age  and  the  ages,  the  Japanese 
people  seem  to  me  to  have,  above  every  other  nation 
on  earth,  the  power  to  become  the  true  middle  term 
in  the  surely  coming  union  and  reconciliation  of  the 
Orient  and  the  Occident ;  and  this,  I  have  tried  to 
show  in  this  work.  W.  E.  G. 

Ithaca,  July,  1907. 


CONTENTS 


PREHISTORIC   XIPPOX 

)DUCTION 

The  White  Race  and  the  First  Inhabitants.  The 
Fapanese  a  Mixed  People  made  up  of  Several  RacCvS, 
le  Basic  Stock  being  a  White  R.vce  and  speaking  an 
Lryan  Tongue.  What  the  Soil,  Language,  and  Re- 
jarches  of  the  Past  Fifty  Years  and  esjtecially  of  the 
Opening  of  the  Twentieth  Century  Reveal. 


PAfJK 

1 


The    Aryan    Whitp:    Race    in     the    Archi- 
pelago          

The  Malay  Element  in  Japan 
The  Idzumo  Cycle  of  Legends 
The  Yamato  People  and  Mikadoism 
Yamato  Damashii        .... 
Stone  Age  and  Iron  Agk  . 
The  Highest  and  the  Lowest 


10 
30 
48 
63 
75 
90 
101 


XL 
XIL 
XIII. 


JAPAN  IX   THE   LIGHT  OF  RECORDS 

The  Aryan  Religion  .  . 

The  Political  Revolution  or  a.d.  01. 
The  First  New  Japan 
Church  and  State      .... 
Woman  the  Conservator  . 
Imperialism,  Expansion,  and  Feudalism 


119 
133 
146 
159 
167 
180 


CONTENTS 


THE  JAPANESE  A  NATION 

CHAPTER 

XIV.  One  People:   Two  Capitals 

XV.  Japan  rejects  Mongolism   . 

XVI.  Japan  as  a  Dark  and  Bloody  Ground 

XVII.  The  Christian  Century 

XVIII.  The  Self-isolated  Hermit  Nation   . 

XIX.  Bushido  in  Revelation 


195 
207 
221 

238 
257 
271 


MODERN  OCCIDENTAL  INFLUENCES 

XX.  The  Native  Intellect  Fertilized  . 
The  Russian  Menace  in  the  North 
Diplomacy  and  Commotion  . 


XXI. 
XXII. 

XXIII. 


XXIV. 


The    New    Government    and    the    New 

Japan  

Foreign  Servants  and  Helpers 


285 
296 
310 

326 
334 


JAPAN  AMONG   THE  NATIONS 

XXV.     The  New  National  Army  and  Navy       .  347 

XXVI.    Panoplied  Japan.    A  Public  School  Army  358 
XXVII.    The  War  with  Russia.    A  Foothold  on 

THE  Continent 370 

XXVIII.    A  World  Power.      Ambitions,  Burdens, 

Problems 383 

XXIX.    Second  to  None 394 

Index 401 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Admiral  II.  Togo 


Frontispiece 


10 


tiO 

llf) 


rAOIHO   PAOB 

Our  Aryan  Kinsmen  in  Japan.  Ainu  Subjects  of 
THE  Mikado        

Of  the  First  Fa.milies  in  .Japan.  Ainu  Father  ani 
Son 

Tattooed  Letter  Carrier,  1870  .... 

The  Rocky  Coast,  at  Misaki,  iielow  Satsuma 

Students  in  the  Woman's  University  in  Tokio 

Mountain  Village  Tea-house       .... 

General  Kuroki       

l*AGODA     OF     THE     Mu.NAMKlO      <>P      HoRIU.JI,     FOUNDED 

607    A.D 128 

Crown  Princess  Sada  and  Crown  Prince  Yoshihito     152 

Popular  Buddhism  in  Japan's  Appealing  Land- 
scape     218 

Castle  of  Ni.jo;   Place  of  the  Charter  Oath,  1868    254 

Memorial  Lanterns  presented  by  Vassal  Daimios 
AT  the  Tombs  of  the  Shoguns      .... 

The  First  Telegraph  in  Japan,  1871  .... 

The  Yedo  Shogun  and  his  Wife  in  Treaty  Days  . 

National  Industrial  Exposition  at  Osaka,  1904    . 

American    College    (German    Reformed    Church) 

IN  Sendai 342 

In  the  Higher  Technical  School,  Tokio  .        .        .    346 


260 
312 
310 
322 


xii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAOB 

The  First  National  Cemetery  at  Nagasaki  .        .  356 

One  of  the  Red  Cross  Hospital  Ships  of  Japan    .  364 

Founders  of  Political  Parties  in  Japan          .        .  388 
Sannomiya,     Court    Chamberlain.      General    Ko- 

DAMA,  Chief  of  Staff 396 


JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 


■F 

^^■■b  wi 


INTRODUCTION 


WHITE   RACE   AND   THE   FIRST   INHABITANTS 

islands  of  Nippon  have  been  long  populated, 
but  the  Japanese  are  a  young  nation.  Their  savage 
ancestors  ''came  out  of  the  woods"  when  ours  did. 
The  archipelago  was  first  of  all  inhabited  by  a  race 
common  to  both  Europe  and  Asia.  White  men, 
belonging  to  the  great  Aryan  family  and  speaking  a 
language  akin  to  the  Indo-Germanic  tongues,  were 
the  first  "Japanese,"  who  are  a  composite,  and  not 
a  pure  "Mongolian"  race.  Their  inheritance  of 
blood  and  temperament  partakes  of  the  potencies  of 
both  Europe  and  Asia. 

AVords  are  winged.  They  fly  through  the  ages, 
yet  they  abide  with  ever  renewing  life.  In  Jai)an, 
the  primordial  names  left  ages  ago  on  mountain  and 
river,  promontory  and  island,  hill  and  slope,  remain 
to  make  unexpected  revelation.  They  show  that 
th(!  ancestors  of  the  Ainu  —  an  Aryan  people  —  who 
now  dwell  only  in  the  northern  islands,  once  lived  all 
over  the  archipelago.  No  attempt  was  made  to  ex- 
press these  names  in  writing  until  the  eighth  century 
of  our  era.    Then,  in  most  misleading  Chinese  charac- 


2  JAPANESE  NATION    IN   EVOLUTION 

ters,  purposely  inteiided'to  drop  the  native  vocables 
into  .obliviori,  the :  iiew  .  narnes  were  made  official. 
Nevertheless,  dijspite  ^mistranslations,  confusing  as- 
sociations, popular  pronunciation  according  to  the 
written  ideograph,  the  aboriginal  meaning  and  often 
the  primitive  form  can  be  regained.  These  tell 
interesting  stories. 

Most  names  of  places  held  most  sacred  in  Japanese 
history  are  Aryan.  Meaningless  in  the  spoken  tongue 
and  absurd  in  the  Chinese  ideograms  long  ago  plastered 
over  them,  they  talk  truth  and  beauty  when  recovered. 
Ainu  epithets  reveal  common  sense  and  manifest 
natural  appropriateness  when,  read  and  interpreted 
from  aboriginal  man's  point  of  view.  Names  of  the 
conquered  chiefs  and  places  found  in  the  Kojiki,  or 
oldest  Records,  written  a.d.  712,  are  often  trans- 
parently Ainu.  The  absurdly  long  names  of  the  gods 
sprinkled  on  its  pages  are  manifestly  attempts  at 
folk-etymology,  in  explanation  of  Ainu  places  and 
hero  names  —  a  process  with  many  analogies  in 
America.  Even  when  scribes,  who  first  applied 
writing  to  geography,  used  their  pens,  they  set  down 
what  they  heard  by  means  of  Chinese  characters, 
which  were  then  used  phonetically,  for  sound  and 
not  for  sense.  Afterwards  these  ideographs  were  too 
often  taken  at  their  true  significance,  thus  introduc- 
ing a  second  system  of  false  derivation,  a  new  mythol- 
ogy or  disease  of  language,  and  a  threefold  confusion 
in  history.  Hence  the  enormous  fungus  growth  of 
mythology  to  explain  what  becomes  clear  in  Ainu 


WHITE  RACE  AND  THE  FIRST   INHABITAxXTS       3 

speech.  For  example,  such  names  as  Yamato,  which 
to  the  eye  means  mountain  gate,  is  Ainu  for  chestnut 
pond,  or  the  pond  among  the  chestnut  trees.  Fuji 
Yama  is  named  from  the  Ainu  goddess  of  fire.  Even 
Satsuma  is  an  Ainu  word.  Hakodate,  which  seems 
to  mean  box  fort,  has  another  meaning.  Yedo, 
or  bay  door  in  the  Chinese  script,  is  in  Ainu  the 
herby  place,  or  where  a  certain  herb  grows  plentifully. 
The  aboriginal  people,  of  whom  the  Ainu  are 
descendants,  speak  a  tongue  which  is  not  Japanese, 
Chinese,  Korean,  or  Malay,  but  Aryan.  Thirty- 
five  years  ago,  I  recognized  Ainu  names  on  the  moun- 
tains and  rivers.  In  1871,  while  living  at  Fukui, 
Echizen,  in  the  far  interior,  seeing  no  white  man  for 
many  months,  I  was  surprised  to  note  in  the  people 
so  many  physical  evidences,  as  I  thought,  of  descent 
from  Iranian,  Caucasian,  or  Aryan  ancestry.  The 
types  of  countenance,  the  lightness  of  the  skin,  the 
hair,  eyes,  and  cuticle  of  the  babies  and  little  folk, 
and  especially  the  workings  of  the  adult  mind,  led 
me  to  conclude  that  the  Japanese  were  not  a  pure 
Mongolian  race.  In  studying  the  local  history  of 
Koshi,  as  this  part  of  Japan  was  anciently  called, 
I  was  struck  with  such  names  as  Ebisu  Minato  (Ainu 
harbor),  and  astonished  at  the  results  of  analysis  of 
those  which  made  nonsense  when  translated  by  the 
Chinese  characters  in  which  they  were  written.  This 
opened  my  eyes.  Examining  the  geography  of  the 
northern  end  of  the  main  island,  I  was  convinced 
that  the  originals  of  many  names  were  Ainu.     As  this 


4  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

method  of  research  had,  in  America,  helped  in  the 
study  of  Iroquois  and  Algonquin  localities,  I  thought 
it  might  in  Japan  afford  a  clew  to  the  question  as  to 
who  first  inhabited  the  archipelago  of  Dai  Nippon. 
As  I  read  Japanese  history,  I  came  to  believe  that  these 
straight-eyed  aborigines  were,  along  with  the  Yamato 
and  other  races,  ancestors  of  the  present  Japanese. 
In  the  Caucasian  type  of  face  seen  all  around  me,  I 
was  strengthened  in  my  notions.  In  reading  of  the 
Yezo  Ainu  and  in  talking  with  my  fellow-Americans 
who  had  been  among  them,  I  recognized  in  the  Eta 
muro,  the  straw  boots,  the  snowshoes  of  Echizen,  and 
in  certain  superstitions,  notably  about  the  river- 
monster.  Kappa,  what  seemed  to  be  Ainu  survivals. 

Living  in  Tokio  from  1872  to  1874,  seeing  and 
studying  minutely  the  members  of  the  Ainu  colony 
of  adult  males,  women,  and  student  lads,  dwelling 
for  a  time  in  the  capital,  my  Opinions  were  confirmed. 
I  found  close  relationships  between  the  old  pure  non- 
Mongolian  Japanese  language  and  the  Ainu  speech. 
I  never  suspected  for  a  moment,  however,  that  in 
my  lifetime  indubitable  proofs  would  be  forthcoming 
that  the  Ainu  language  belonged  in  the  Aryan  family. 
There  was  at  that  time,  however,  nothing  but  scanty 
Ainu  vocabularies  accessible,  which,  beside  the  rich 
grammar  and  dictionary  of  the  Rev.  John  Batchelor, 
of  1905,  are  as  sand  grains  to  a  mountain. 

I  wrote  out  my  conclusions  in  1874,  and  these  were 
printed  in  ''The  Mikado's  Empire,"  issued  August  6, 
1876.     In    Chapter    II,    on    ''The    Aborigines,"     I 


lias  ( 

Arva 


^HITE   RACE  AND  THE   FIRST  INHABITANTS       5 

stated  (p.  29)  that  ''Further  proofs  of  the  general 
habitation  of  Hondo  by  the  Ainos  appear  in  the 
geographical  names  which  linger  upon  the  mountains 
and  rivers.  These  names,  musical  in  sound,  and  pos- 
sessing in  their  significance  a  rude  grandeur,  have 
embalmed  the  life  of  a  past  race,"  as  Iroquois  and 
Algonquin  names  ''echo  the  ancient  glories  of  the 
well-nigh  extinct  aborigines  of  America."  I  also 
called  attention  to  the  two  types  of  faces  seen  in 
n.  In  the  Preface,  I  stated  my  belief  that  "the 
ic  stock  of  the  Japanese  people  is  Aino;  and  that 
ijLthis  fact  lies  the  root  of  the  marvellous  difference 
e  psychology  of  the  Japanese  and  their  neighbors 
e  Chinese."  In  a  word,  "Race  is  the  key  to  his- 
By  "basic  stock"  I  mean  the  oldest  race 
wn  in  the  islands.  The  discussion  of  this  subject, 
all  its  limitations,  will  be  found  in  Chapter  II. 
was  Professor  Basil  Hall  Chamberlain,  with  all 
wealth  of  learning  and  research,  who  wrought  out 
this  subject  more  fully.  In  1887  he  published  that 
illuminating  book,  "The  Language,  Mythology,  and 
Geographical  Nomenclature  of  Japan,  Viewed  in  the 
Kit  of  Aino  Studies."  Rev.  John  Batchelor,  who 
Sgan  Christian  work  among  the  Yezo  folk  in  1879, 
has  demonstrated  that  the  Ainu  language  is  Aryan, 
the  marks  common  to  the  speech  of  the  six  great 
ryan  peoples,  Latin  and  Greek,  Teuton  and  Celt, 
v  and  Hindu.  With  personal  pronouns,  passive 
e,  case  endings,  and  an  absence  of  honorifics,  its 
ures  are  clearly  discerned. 


6  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

The  Ainu  regard  themselves  as  of  a  different  stock 
from  the  rest  of  their  fellow-subjects  of  the  Mikado. 
They  speak  of  their  conquerors  as  ''men  of  a  differ- 
ent class  of  eye-socket,"  and  call  them  ''Siamese." 
Their  own  name  for  themselves  is  Ainu  or  men.  For 
ages,  "Yezo"  meant  not  an  island,  but  all  the  main 
island  east  of  Omi  inhabited  by  the  Ainu.  "Yezo" 
signified  what  our  own  Housatonic  (Dutch,  Woesten 
Hoek)  means,  that  is,  The  Land  of  the  Savages. 
For  a  thousand  years  or  more  the  frontier  line  of  the 
Mikado's  empire  was  being  gradually  pushed  north- 
ward. "  Yezo,"  meaning  an  island,  is  a  modern  word 
wholly  of  European  use  and  origin. 

Yezo,  Yebisu,  and  Yemishi,  or  Ezo,  Ebisu,  and 
Emishi,  are  one  and  the  same  term,  meaning  barba- 
rians or  savages,  found  in  the  eighth  century  and  later 
writings  of  the  Japanese,  and  in  common  use,  until 
all  the  Ainu  on  the  main  island  had  been  absorbed. 
By  intermarriage,  and  living  under  the  same  political, 
social,  legal,  and  religious  forces,  the  conquered  Ainu 
of  Hondo  were  lost  in  the  mass  of  the  Japanese  people. 
To  this  secular  process,  the  most  ancient  as  well  as 
modern  documents,  archaeology,  place  names  and 
dialects  bear  witness.  How  terrible  were  the  means 
used,  how  age-long  was  the  method  of  making  the 
Ainu  and  all  other  subjects  of  the  Mikado  uniform 
in  life,  food,  clothing,  coif,  manners,  etiquette, 
facial  gestures,  use  of  breath,  hands,  and  graduated 
language,  and  expressions  in  presence  of  superiors,  is 
shown  in  the  records  and  is  mirrored  in  the  language 


^: 


literature.    Sumptuary,  economical,  and  religious 
y  were  secured  first  of  all  by  the  sword.     The 
results  were  vividly  visible  to  me  as  I  lived  in  feudal- 
ism.    They  are  most  powerfully  set  forth  by  the  late 
Lafcadio  Hearn,  in  his  "Japan:    an  Interpretation." 
wrote  largely  from  hearsay  and  lx)oks.     I  saw 
al  society  as  it  was,  yes,  even  in  phases  of  life 
ami  death  in  the  Japanese  feudal  world,  now  forever 
ed  away. 

he  remnants  of  unconquered  and  unabsorbed  Ainu 

people,  on  Yezo  island,  with  the  very  few  that  were 

driven  across  the  straits  of  Tsugaru,  were  left  and 

nearly  forgotten  on  the  island  we  now  call   Yezo, 

ch  the  Japanese  never  colonized  or  cared  much 

ut  until  the  seventeenth  century,  and  of  whose 

outline,  as  that  of  Saghalien,  they  were  of  old 

rant.     The  knowledge  of  their  frontier  and  the 

lolidation  of  thcMr  emi)ir(>  came  to  them  very  late, 

then  chiefly  under  the  pressure  of  the  Russian 

ace. 

?ft  for  eight  hundred  years  beyond  the  pale  of 
civilizing  and  refining  influences  enjoyed  by  the 
inese,  the  Ainu  remained  savage  and  uncivilized, 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  by  the 
of    firearms   and    firewater   subdued,   disarmed, 
3hed,   without   any  object  to   unite  them,   they 
me  a  cowed,  divided,  and  broken-spirited  people. 
Klay  the  annual  immigration  of  Japanese  into  the 
island  of  Yezo,  in  some  years,  exceeds  the  total  number 


8  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

and  the  area  of  fisheries.  No  longer  under  the  hardy 
discipHne  of  resistance  and  war,  their  game  disap- 
pearing and  the  hunter's  life  exchanged  for  sedentary 
habits,  they  have  become  like  the  ''blanket  Indians" 
on  the  reservations  of  to-day,  or  the  beggars  at  the 
railway  stations,  as  compared  with  the  fierce  warriors 
led  by  Pontiac  or  Tecumseh.  Once  they  could  make 
Japanese  tremble  and  many  were  their  victories  in  war. 

Differences  in  the  daily  details  of  life  and  physical 
environment  made  of  the  savage  Yezo  Ainu  and  the 
Ainu-Japanese  two  different  ''races,"  whose  mixed 
offspring  degenerate  and  become  sterile.  House 
life,  hot  baths,  daily  cleanliness,  agriculture,  schools, 
religion,  art,  culture,  vigorous  mental  and  political 
discipline,  all  the  ennobling  influences  of  a  high 
civilization  were  for  the  men  below  the  straits  of 
Tsugaru,  the  Southern  or  Ainu-Japanese.  Dirt, 
ignorance,  savagery,  a  hunter's  life  in  the  stone  age, 
remained  for  the  neglected  Ainu  of  the  Hokkaido  or 
northern  islands. 

Race-hatred,  nursery  superstitions,  religious  and 
local  prejudices  completed  the  separation,  and  a  new 
name  coined  in  contempt  deepened  the  abyss  by 
adding  a  bitter  stigma  to  Ainu  reputation.  In 
Japanese  mouths  they  were  called  Aino  (Ai-no-ko), 
bastard  of  man  and  brute,  a  term  as  offensive  to  the 
Ainu  as  is  the  vulgar  objurgation  of  a  female  dog's 
"son"  heard  among  us.  Some  color  was  lent  to 
this  popular  notion,  because  the  Ainu  culture  was 
that  of  man  and  dog.     The  Yamato  people,  in  close 


nsn 
with 


^HITE  RACE  AND  THE   FIRST  INHABITANTS       9 

ection  with  the  continent,  had  horses  and  cattle. 
Though  horses  are  now  common  in  Yezo,  the  dog  was 
the  only  animal  domesticated  by  the  Ainu.  This 
faithful  brute  is  taught  not  only  to  hunt  bear  and 
deer,  but  on  land  to  watch  on  the  shore  for  the  in- 
coming salmon,  to  rush  into  the  water,  drive  the 
fish  into  shallows,  bite  off  the  salmon's  head  and 
e  its  body  at  his  master's  feet.  In  modern  days, 
wTth  the  reckless  slaughter  of  the  deer  and  the  extinc- 
ign  of  the  bear  by  the  amateur  with  breech  loader, 
Ainu  hunter-life  is  nearly  over.  Being  a  "ward" 
ciTthe  Government,  he  is  being  crowded  out  by  the 
anese  settlers  in  Yezo.  Nevertheless  this  con- 
pt  for  the  Ainu  and  for  his  alleged  mental  inferior- 
as  if  it  were  ancient  and  inherent,  reminds  the 
erican  of  the  southern  black  servants'  contempt 
*'poor  white  trash"  and  "crackers." 
he  Ainu  had  no  metals  and  knew  not  how  to  get 
ork  them.  Their  folklore  shows  that  they  made 
ery,  and  also  that  in  very  ancient  times  they  were 
ibals.  The  Southrons  or  confjuerors  excelled 
forge  and  anvil.  Excavations  mad(^  in  the  myriad 
11  heaps,  from  Satsuma  to  th(^  Kuriles,  show  that 
als  were  unknown  to  these  Aryans.  In  the  thou- 
ids  of  tumuli,  and  of  dolmens  or  stone  chambers 
the  conquering  race  of  pre-Mongolian  Nippon, 
ught  metal,  tools,  weapons,  and  ornaments  of 
silver,  copper,  and  gold  abound.  Anything 
rfine,  even  a  tree  or  textile,  is  expressed  in  Ainu 
by  the  term  ''metal." 


10  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Wash  and  scrub  the  unwashed  and  odorous  Ainu, 
and  you  hardly  recognize  them.  They  become  '^  white 
folks"  at  once.  I  found  the  Ainu  students  in  Tokio, 
after  the  application  of  soap  and  water,  were  genuine 
white  men,  looking  exactly  like  fresh  arrivals  at 
Ellis  Island,  New  York  City.  Kinsmen  they  may 
be  of  the  cave  men  of  Europe,  or  of  those  whose 
bones  lie  in  the  British  barrows,  whom  Isaac  Taylor 
identifies  with  the  primitive  Aryan.  Nevertheless, 
in  the  working  of  their  minds,  in  apprehension  of 
our  ways  and  thoughts,  and  needs  of  daily  hfe  (though 
not  in  abstract  science),  as  American  and  British 
travellers  in  our  day  and  generation  tell  us,  they  are 
decidedly  Aryan,  more  so  than  the  smarter  Japanese. 
Mr.  Archibald  Gowan  Campbell,  in  1898,  besides 
remarking  on  their  fine  physique,  says  of  the  Ainu, 
'Hhey  have  a  distinct  bias  for  veracity  and  will 
frequently  tell  the  truth  to  their  own  disadvantage,'' 
and  that  both  sexes  are  devoid  of  the  insatiable  curios- 
ity of  the  Japanese;  that  many  Ainu  are  distinctly 
handsome,  and  the  children  are  singularly  European 
in  their  ways,  that  the  Ainu  intelligence  is  limited, 
but  it  seems  to  be  of  the  same  kind  as  our  own  and 
not  of  the  Asiatic  order ;  that  an  Ainu  readily  under- 
stands European  signs,  while  a  Japanese  invariably 
gets  them  upside  down;  that  it  is  easier  to  make  a 
novel  request  to  an  Ainu  than  to  a  Japanese,  owing 
to  the  simplicity  of  the  one  and  the  conventionality 
of  the  other. 

Under  Christianity  both  the  cuticle  and  the  tongue 


[ITE  RACE  AND  THE  FIRST  INHABITANTS    11 


Ml' 


the  Ainu  become  clean.  The  mind  harbors  fewer 
the  images  of  words  and  things  vile  that  are  com- 
n  to  savagery  everywhere  and  which  are  so  start- 
lingly  photographed  in  the  primitive  documents  of 
Japan,  in  which  are  probably  many  Ainu  episodes 
supposed  to  be  "Japanese."  A  Christian  Ainu  is 
v_erily  a  new  being  physically,  who  anywhere  in  Europe 
America  might  pass  as  a  gentleman  to  the  manor 
rn.  Many  of  them  have  striking,  often  pleasing 
and  attractive  faces,  with  finely  chiselled  features, 
e  are  florid  in  countenance,  tall  in  stature,  with 
soft  brown  eyes  and  reddisli  hair.  Invariably  they 
ve  gentle  manners,  but  the  old  savage  can  rise  and 
temper  flame.  For  the  most  part  these  Aryan- 
speaking  folk  are  taller  than  the  Japanese,  while  far 
re  muscular  and  sturdy  in  endurance.  They 
k,  turning  the  toes  out,  and  not  in,  as  do  Japanese 
Indians.  They  have  perfectly  straight  eyes 
irizontally  set,  with  noses  that  equal  in  protrusion 
and  mouths  that  rival  in  breadth,  those  of  their  Aryan 
ins  elsewhere.  They  have  invariably  what  men 
pure  Mongolian  stock  lack  —  luxuriant  beards  and 
taches,  as  well  as  plenty  of  hair  on  their  heads, 
en  free  from  scalp  disease.  It  is  this  characteristic 
ch  has  given  them  the  factitious  reputation  of 
essive  hairiness.  From  very  ancient  times,  as 
example,  when  wrecked  a.d.  310  on  the  coast  of 
na,  and  when  taken  by  the  Mikado's  envoys, 
659,  as  curiosities  to  the  Chinese  Emperor's 
this  feature  was  noted. 


12  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

The  Chinese  and  the  Japanese,  in  whom  Mongolian 
blood  predominates,  have,  for  the  most  part,  smooth 
faces  or  a  few  stringy  hairs  on  the  upper  lip  and 
chin,  visible  indeed,  but  not  luxurious.  On  the 
Japanese  head,  however,  the  hair  grows  more  thickly 
than  on  the  Ainu.  It  is  also  true  that  occasionally 
an  Ainu  is  found  on  whose  body  and  limbs  there  is  a 
growth  of  hair  that  would  make  him  a  special  object 
of  attention  to  foreigners,  especially  of  those  who 
rarely  ever  see  nudity  on  a  large  scale.  Among  foreign 
people,  who  in  Yezo  have  seen  the  numerous  half- 
breeds  supposed  to  be  pure  Ainu,  and  even  the  natives 
in  their  wilds,  there  is  no  subject  on  which  there  is 
more  difference  of  opinion  than  that  of  Ainu  hirsute- 
ness.  Certain  authors  iiave  in  book-title,  text,  and 
picture  frightfully  exaggerated  Ainu  hairiness.  My 
own  observation  agrees  with  that  of  those  who  have 
seen  the  largest  number  of  Ainu.  I  consider  that 
their  alleged  excessive  hairiness,  as  compared  with 
the  Occidental  standard,  is  a  fable.  The  first  full 
description  of  the  Ainu  by  M.  Rollin,  who  was  with 
La  Perouse  in  1787,  has  been  constantly  copied  and 
is  now  with  some  people  almost  an  article  of  religion. 

Few  book-writers  have  ever  seen  a  regiment  of 
men  taking  their  swim.  Having  myself  studied  scores 
of  Ainu,  and,  during  our  Civil  War,  when  myself  a 
soldier,  seen  a  brigade  of  men  in  the  United  States 
Army  in  a  state  of  nudity,  I  do  not  believe  the  Ainu 
are  especially  hairy  except  on  the  face  and  head. 
Many  white  men  are  much  hairier  than  the  typical 


^ 


[ITE  RACE  AND  THE  FIRST  INHABITANTS     13 

Ainu.  The  enormous  size  of  the  mustaches  of  these 
adult  men,  who  never  shave,  has  given  rise  to  the 
de;velopment  of  a  ritual  for  drinking  their  sak^,  or 
their  millet  beer,  in  which  ''the  mustache  lifter" 
plays  a  great  part. 

Savage  life,  in  its  general  features,  is  much  the  same 
over  the  world.  In  studying  the  Ainu,  we  see 
red  the  habits  of  our  primitive  fathers  in  the 
woods  and  swamps  of  northern  Europe  in  the  days 
when  Caesar  met  a  man  who  had  been  travelling  for 
two  months  in  the  unbroken  forest.  The  Ainu  of 
to-day  live  in  huts.  In  hunting,  fishing,  drinking, 
and  daily  habits,  in  their  worship  of  the  bear,  in  their 
use  of  fetiches  and  methods  of  propitiating  the  Un- 
n  Mystery,  in  the  decoration  of  their  homes  with 
skulls  of  animals  slain  in  the  chase,  in  their  feel- 
ings, ambitions,  and  grade  of  culture,  they  are  almost 
lythe  counterpart  of  our  own  ancestors,  in  cave 
If!  swamp,  not  indeed  as  idealized  on  the  canvas 
of  Piloty,  as  when  Hermann  returns  from  victory  or 
Thusnelda  walks  at  Romc^  in  the  triumph  of  Ger- 
manicus,  but  as  they  were  in  reality.  In  at  least  one 
:sical  characteristic,  the  Ainu  approach  the  cave- 
,  that  is,  in  the  flattening  of  the  shin  bone.  Other 
points  of  resemblance  to  their  relatives  in  Europe 
^  be  noted  in  the  manuals  of  ethnology. 
|bat  "the  Japanese  realm  was  once  an  Ainu  realm  " 
is  the  verdict  of  Professor  Koganei  of  Tokio,  where  is 
the  great  museum  of  Ebisu  relics.  These  Aryans 
have  left  not  only  their  names  on  the  haunts  of  their 


m$ 


14  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

forefathers,  but  all  over  Japan  are  found  their  shell 
heaps  and  kitchen  refuse.  Primitive  man  was  fond 
of  oysters  and  clams.  Over  four  thousand  old  sites 
of  prehistoric  restaurants  have  been  located  by 
native  and  foreign  archaeologists.  As  early  as 
715  A.D.,  these  shell  heaps,  kaidzuka,  are  mentioned 
in  writing  by  the  southern  conquerors.  The  pioneer 
farmers,  a  thousand  years  ago,  scattered  over  the 
soil  or  made  lime  of  these  accumulations,  the  origin 
of  which  they  did  not  understand.  Hence  these 
shell  mounds  are  relatively  so  much  rarer  on  the  old 
and  long-tilled  land,  while  numerous  in  the  newer 
East  and  North,  in  which  region  Ainu  words  are  still 
common  in  the  dialects.  At  the  northern  tip  of 
Hondo,  the  pure-blooded  Ainu  were  still  hving  until 
late  in  the  eighteenth  century.  In  later  days  these 
shell  mounds  were  vulgarly  supposed  to  have  been 
in  giants'  houses  or  were  explained  as  old  sea  beaches. 

Myths  are  easier  to  make  than  science.  Fairy 
tales  are  more  agreeable  than  plain  facts.  The  most 
striking  relics  were  later  explained  according  to 
Chinese  myth,  as  coming  from  the  thunder  god  who 
sits  on  the  clouds  and  beats  his  drum.  Hence  the 
Japanese  word  raifu,  or  thunder-axe.  Human  nature 
in  Nippon,  exactly  like  that  of  our  own,  interprets 
oddities  on  the  plan  so  long  pursued  elsewhere. 
In  Iroquois  legend,  the  gods  destroyed  the  mastodons 
with  thunderbolts,  and  much  the  same  explanations 
of  cause  and  effect  were  given  throughout  Europe. 

Thus  while  ''Japan  is  a  museum  of  Asiatic  civiliza- 


[ITE   RACE  AND  THE   FIRST  IXHABITAXTS    15 


tion,"  possibly  able  even  ''to  mirror  the  whole  of  the 
Asiatic  consciousness,"  and  is  "the  real  repository 
of  the  trust  of  Asiatic  thought  and  culture,"  she  has 
also  in  her  double  inheritance  that  which  links  her 
to  Europe  and  the  ''white"  race.  It  is  more  than 
c  sentiment  to  affirm  that 

"  One  ruddy  drop  of  manly  blood 
The  surging  seas  outweighs," 

that  not  the  least  drop  in  the  Japanese  composite 
is  that  of  the  Ainu  blood.  In  Kano  Hogai's  picture  of 
Kuanon,  conceived  as  the  Universe  Mother,  the  water 
of  creation,  dropped  from  the  crystal  vase  held  in 
her  hand,  becomes  in  each  drop  a  babe.  So  in  the 
ultimate  results  of  Japan's  long  story,  each  Ainu 

"atom's  force 
Moves  the  light-poised  universe." 


10  rj\ 
ana  t 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  ARYAN  WHITE  RACE  IN  THE  ARCHIPELAGO 

The  story  of  the  island  people  now  called  the 
Japanese  may  be  divided  into  two  parts.  One  era 
belongs  to  the  prehistoric  seon;  that  is,  in  the  night 
of  time.  The  other  begins  with  written  history. 
The  one  is  concerned  with  ethnic  origins,  the  other 
with  nation  building.  The  first  suggests  beginnings 
on  sparsely  populated  islands,  telling  how  the  archi- 
pelago was  peopled  first  by  savages,  and  secondly  by 
barbarians  with  arts  and  taste.  In  the  written  story 
we  see  a  stream  of  human  culture  borne  by  people 
who  came  from  old  seats  of  civilization  and  built  up 
the  State.  One  set  of  men,  the  white  Aryans,  was 
cut  off  from  culture,  and  remained  savage.  The 
other  set,  already  semi-civilized,  was  successively 
reenforced  from  the  continent. 

Situated  on  the  great  ocean  highway  of  the  Kuro 
Shiwo,  or  Black  Current,  in  the  path  of  the  waifs  and 
strays,  borne  up  from  the  tropics,  along  the  whole 
waterway  from  Lombok  to  Alaska,  these  Islands  of 
the  Sunrise  have  never  lacked  potential  settlers. 
Along  the  whole  way  of  this  natural  ocean  route  are 
lighthouses   furnished   by   the   volcanoes   at   night, 

16 


'AN  WHITE  RACE  IN  THE  ARCHIPELAGO    17 


landmarks  clearly  visible  by  day,  and  shallows 
with  food  always  within  reach.  In  repossessing,  since 
1895,  Formosa,  with  its  copper-colored  aborigines, 
and  since  1869  the  Riu  Kiu  (Loo  Choo)  islands,  which 
stretch  like  the  cross-pieces  of  a  long  rope-ladder,  the 
Japanese  are  simply  repatriating  their  kinsmen  and 
reoccupying  the  dwelling-places  of  their  Malay 
ancestors.  In  concentrating  all  the  Ainu  of  the 
Hokkaido  in  Yezo  island,  they  are  showing  kind- 
ness to  their  Aryan  forebears. 

urn  up,  tlicn,  we  have  first  the  movement  of 
riafural  ininiignmts,  compelled  by  storm  and  current, 
distinct  from  civilized  men. 

■rer  against  this  movement,  but  nuich  later, 
are  the  immigrations  from  the  continent,  but 
her  the  prehistoric  peoples  who  reached  Nip- 
were  Accadian,  Semitic,  Aryan,  Turkish,  or 
Tartar,  no  man  as  yet  knows.  Certainly  they 
not  Chinese  or  Koreans.  Before  the  dawn 
istory  and  letters,  the  Indonesian  and  Conti- 
races  had  fused,  and  we  see  in  the  Kojiki,  not 
ure  mythology  or  simple  traditions  of  a  single 
race,  but  a  composite  of  traditions  and  fairy  tales, 
until  after  the  fourth  century  did  argosies  of 
ions,  philosophies,  arts,  and  sciences,  borne  on 
the  stream  of  the  human  mind  from  old  seats  of 
re,  reach  Nippon's  shores.  Then  did  the  "Mon- 
golian" elements  of  civilization,  Korean  and  Chi- 
^^mjse,  but  infused  with  the  thoughts  of  India,  over- 
^^■^kn  and  almost  bury  what  was  ancient  in  Japan, 

i. 


Tfirta 

B' 

race, 

Teilgii 

the  s 

eronan 


18  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

leading  the  average  Occidental  to  imagine  the  Jap- 
anese are  '^  Mongolians." 

From  the  North  also,  where  Saghalien  almost  touches 
the  continent,  have  come  men  whose  descendants  are 
Japanese.  Thus  from  the  South,  the  West,  and  the 
North,  the  Sun  Land  in  early  ages  received  her  children. 

In  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the  secrets  of  the 
Far  Orient  were  opened  to  Europe,  influences  entered 
to  alarm  rather  than  please  the  rulers  of  Nippon. 
The  organism,  like  a  sensitive  plant,  infolded.  Fear- 
ing further  menace,  Japan  isolated  herself  during  two 
centuries  and  became  as  Thornrose.  Finally,  when 
steam  had  made  the  ocean  an  easy  highway,  science 
and  invention,  printing,  steam,  and  electricity  opened 
their  gift-laden  hands,  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  nations 
had  appeared  on  the  shores  facing  the  long  inviolable 
island  realm,  Japan  reopened  her  doors  and  became 
the  new  link  between  China  and  the  American  Re- 
public. Later,  by  an  unexpected  unfolding  of  power 
she  rose  as  the  intermediary  between  the  Orient  and 
the  Occident.  Her  blended  Aryan  and  Mongol  in- 
heritance fitted  her  to  absorb  the  new  civilization. 
As  she  had  made  synthesis  of  India  religion  and 
Chinese  thought,  so  was  she  enabled  again,  in  the 
nineteenth  as  in  the  sixth  century,  to  assimilate  new 
ideas  and  forces.  With  as  yet  unsuspected  reserves 
of  power,  will  she  meet  the  emergencies  yet  to  come. 
There  is  nothing  surprising  in  her  modern  life,  which 
is  an  evolution  of  inner  powers  stimulated  by  Occi- 
dental intellect  and  forces. 


iier  ] 


fYAN  WHITE   RACE   IN  THE  ARCHIPELAGO     19 

rice   born   has   been   Dai   Nippon.     Her  initial 

consciousness  came  to  her  in  the  glow  of  missionary 

Buddhism  and  in  the  time  of  China's  Golden  Age. 

IhiT  renaissance  occurred  when  the   highest  mastery 

been  won  l)y  the  race  over  the  forces  of  nature. 

("third  avatar  came  after  Mukden  and  Portsmouth. 

905  a  su[)reme  struggle  for  life  opened  a  new 

of  experience,  giving  her  a  fresh  outlook.     Hers 

was  then  the  assurance  that  there  was  in  herself  no 

inherent  inferiority  to  Europe.     Indeed,  why  should 

the  Japanese  fear  the  kinsmen  of  their  own  ancestors? 

Nay,  why  should  they  not  enter  into  full  brotherhood 

and  joyful  alliance  with  them?     No  other  nation  is 

so  fitted  to  welcome  the  new,  without  losing  the  old, 

Japan. 

ny  and   mighty   have    Uwn    the   inva.^ioiis,   in- 
ns,  and   immigrations  of   blood   and   of   ideas 
into  Japan,  which  is,  in  a  certain  sense,  the  residuum 
of  all  Asia.     Phaniicia  and  Greece,  Persia  and  India, 
Tliibet,  China,  and  Korea,  the  Malay  and  the   Indo- 
|hn  world  have  made  of  Japan  an  enriched  and 
ofwertilized    country.     The    Japanese    are    used    to 
'pities  and  they  are  trained  to  test  the  worth  of 
fcomers,  Hindu,  Chinese,  Iberian,  British,  Russian, 
or  Yankee.     Even  in  the  tremendous  onslaught  of 
Occidental  influences  since  the  days  of  Xavier  and  the 
Iberians,  and  of  Perry  and  Harris,  she  has  had  pro- 
longed experience  in  proving  all  things  and  holding 
^^^^that  which  is  good. 


20  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Chinese  irruption,  is  like  seeking  for  Herculaneum 
and  Pompeii.  Since  the  old  culture  previous  to  the 
sixth  century  lies  as  though  buried  under  a  volcano 
shower  of  ashes,  we  must  dig  a  shaft  in  order  to  bring 
to  the  surface  the  buried  treasure.  To  begin  with,  we 
must  set  aside  almost  wholly  the  mass  of  early  Euro- 
pean books  on  Japan,  besides  nine-tenths  of  the  great 
bulk  of  modern  publications.  The  mountain  heaps 
of  copyists'  material  is  practically  worthless  for 
science;  for,  even  at  its  best,  we  have  what  has 
been  decanted  or  dumped  from  uncritical  Japanese 
books,  and  the  legends  and  mythology,  which  natives, 
more  patriotic  than  judicially  minded,  accept  as 
history. 

As  matter  of  fact,  the  translations,  critical  com- 
mentary, and  researches  of  the  English  scholars  of 
the  Meiji  era,  Satow,  Aston,  Chamberlain,  Brinkley, 
Dickins,  and  others,  supplemented  by  the  Germans, 
have  made  obsolete  most  of  the  old  European  learn- 
ing about  Japan.  The  mediaeval  Japanese,  having 
no  historic  sense,  had  a  genius  for  destroying  truth 
in  history.  The  Chinese  characters,  which  the  first 
scribes  scattered  over  aboriginal  names  of  land- 
marks, were  like  salt  on  living  herbs,  killing  the 
primitive  forms.  One  must  receive  with  the  great- 
est caution  the  early  written  Japanese  statements, 
which  were  late  enough;  for,  in  their  method  and 
spirit,  they  are  like  the  Islamizing  of  these  old  Indian, 
Persian,  and  Arabian  stories  gathered  under  the 
title   of   The  Arabian  Nights'   Entertainments.     In 


LYAN  WHITE  RACE  IN  THE  ARCHIPELAGO    21 


these,    Mahometan    orthodoxy    has    dyed    with    its 
colors,  shaped  with  its  own  forms,  and  clothed  with 
its  own  garments  the  characters  in  the  tales  that 
were  old  before  Mahomet  was  born.     In  the  Enter- 
tainments, everybody  speaks  according  to  the  Koran. 
So  over  all  the  early  annals  of  Japan  the  sword  of 
conquest  has  been  laid  and  tlie  shadow  of  Mikadoism 
m  been  cast.     Everything  is  said  or  done  accord- 
mg  to  Shinto,  or  is  in  statement  made  to  conform  to 
^^Chinese  rhetoric.     The  "ages  eternal,"  read  in  the 
^^Hfet  clause  of  the  modern  constitution,  reduce  every- 
xmng  to  the  level  of  political  orthodoxy,  to  doubt 

Mich  is  to  be  officially  damned.  To  extract  reality 
I  of  even  the  primitive  Records  and  Chronicles 
learn  the  truth  about  pre-Mongolian  Japan,  is 
ch  like  attempting  to  decipher  a  palimpsest. 
Nevertheless  there  is  much  unconscious  and  unin- 
ed  truth  that  is  discoverable  on  the  blotting  pad. 
guage  and  archirology  furnish  truth  which  manu- 
factured dogma,  (kily  minted  and  stamped  Hke  coin, 
Ikiot  overthrow, 
■luch  indeed  was  borrowed  by  the  islanders  from 
■na.  Possibly  even  those  who,  landing  in  the 
pth  a  thousand  years  before  the  Christian  era, 
rove  the  Ainu  nortliward,  may  have  been  from 
^^^^tinental  regions,  in  what  was  later  known  as 
^^Bftia.  One  who  overcredits  the  Japanese  with 
originality  had  better  not  study  Chinese  history  or 
literature.  If  he  does,  he  will  find  words,  phrases, 
ideas,  inventions,  and  institutions  which  the  islanders 


22  JAPANESE    NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

have  imported  and  copied,  often  claiming  them  as 
indigenous  and  original.  In  the  Records  and  Chroni- 
cles, in  rhetoric  but  not  in  reality,  we  have  references 
to  things  as  existing  in  Japan,  when  unknown  even 
in  China  until  centuries  later;  so  retroactive  were  the 
native  scribes,  who  raised  against  the  clouds  of  their 
pride  and  imagination  the  gigantic  Brocken  spectre 
of  their  tiny  country. 

Yet  it  is  easy  to  exaggerate  this  part  played  by  the 
Chinese  as  creditors,  as  we  think  some  scholars  have 
done.  For  the  tendency  among  most  closet  writers 
is  to  make  history  wholly  from  documents.  This 
letter-bondage  to  books  and  literature,  failing  to 
take  into  account  what  archaeology  and  other  aids 
and  checks  can  offer,  is  largely  responsible  for  the 
popular  view  of  Japan's  history,  and  especially  her 
ancient  history,  as  held  in  the  Occident.  We  have 
a  similar  example  even  in  the  United  States,  whose 
story  thus  far  has  been  told  in  print  chiefly  by  men 
who,  with  only  a  knowledge  of  the  English  language, 
in  the  current  of  British  tradition,  and  having  access 
to  mighty  stores  of  books,  have  ignored  Continental 
influences  in  the  making  of  the  American  common- 
wealth, often  following  prejudice  and  fancy  rather 
than  fact.  In  reading  the  Records  or  Chronicles, 
we  must  continually  check  their  statements  of  chro- 
nology by  references  to  Chinese  and  Korean  sources 
and  even  their  narratives  by  archaeology  and  the 
testimony  of  language. 

It  is  as  true  of  history  as  it  is  of  linguistics.     If  ^'he 


I 


LYAN   WHITE   RACE  IN  THE  ARCHIPELAGO    23 


■I" 

as  tl 


would  learn  a  language  must  try  to  lisp  in  it/* 
so  also  must  one  go  beneath  the  dignity  of  official 
history,  compiled  in  the  palace,  to  those  realities  of 
hunian  development,  which  the  relics  of  primitive 
re  teach  us.  As  Rembrandt  repudiated  the 
"lition  of  painting  the  Christ  and  the  Apostles  as 
tocrats,  senators,  lords  s|)iritual  and  temporal, 
painted  man,  woman,  the  Lord,  and  his  disciples 
aslhey  were,  so  we  must  not  fear  the  truth  in  talking 
of  those  early  peoples  who  have  formed  the  composite 
Japanese,  joining  neither  their  flatterers  nor  detract- 
ors. The  work  is  worth  the  labor,  for  the  Japan  of 
to-day  is  in  a  large  sense  the  epitome  and  residuary 
legatee  of  all  Asia.  To  know  Japan  is  to  open  avenues 
into  all  Asian  history.  The  gateway  into  the  past 
ia  and  the  rudder  of  her  future  is  Japan, 
nfortunately  fcjr  the  average  Japanese  and  nearly 
all  foreign  books,  they  give  only  the  Yamato  or  cen- 
tral theory  of  Japanese  history,  that  on  which  Mika- 
doism  is  founded,  and  which  furnishes  the  political 
of  the  modern  constitution.  Our  purpose  is 
'crsketch  the  early  story  of  Jaj^an  from  the  Ainu  or 
xiginal  side,  and  to  make  generous  use  of  what  is 
the  frontier  theory.  We  shall  go  on  the  other 
siHe  of  the  looking-glass,  asking  not  only  what  the 
Igds"  and  the  divine  regalia  tell  us,  but  also  what 
H  shell  heaps  and  the  dolmens,  the  pre-ancient 
names  on  the  landscape,  the  physiology  and  the 
physiognomy  of  the  people,  their  mental  and  moral 
traits,  and  the  living  natives  unconsciously  reveal. 


^^aoisn 

^^xo  sk 
borig 

ioe  o 


24  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Japanese  history,  as  we  read  it  after  some  years  of 
scrutiny,  is  wholly  normal  and  human.  It  belongs 
neither  to  the  chimney  of  Santa  Claus,  nor  to  the 
nursery's  fairyland.  Its  story  of  conquest  is  parallel 
with  the  occupation  of  India  by  the  Aryan  Hindu,  of 
China  by  the  primitive  conquering  race,  with  the 
development  of  our  own  savage  ancestry  of  northern 
Europe,  and  with  the  overrunning  of  the  North 
American  continent  by  white  men  from  Europe. 
The  Japanese  are  neither  prodigies,  nor  paragons,  nor 
mere  imitators.  The  same  natural  forces,  operating 
from  without,  the  same  appetites  and  passions  work- 
ing within,  the  same  class  of  influences,  mental,  moral, 
and  spiritual,  arising  from  native,  but  vastly  more 
from  the  imported  cultures,  have  made  the  Japanese 
what  they  are.  There  is  no  necessary  distinction 
between  the  Oriental  and  Occidental,  the  brown  man 
and  the  white  man.  That  the  ''yellow  brain," 
and  the  Japanese  heart  are  ultimately  different  from 
those  of  the  Yankee  or  the  Briton,  is  the  notion  of 
tradition,  not  the  fact  of  science.  The  Japanese  is 
not  a  fatalist,  or  a  prodigy,  or  an  Edenic  creature. 
The  ''Jap"  is  in  human  nature  no  more,  no  less  than 
the  Yank,  the'  Brit,  the  Germ,  and  the  Gaul,  and  he 
has  as  much  right  to  serious  attention  and  the  benefit 
of  truth  stripped  of  its  nursery  garb,  as  has  the  Euro- 
pean. 

In  all  those  arts  and  representations  which  depend 
for  their  motive  and  existence  upon  contrast  and 
carefully  manipulated  differences,  as  in  fiction,  paint- 


[RYAN  WHITE  RACE  IN  THE  ARCHIPELAGO    25 

[,  the  drama,  and  caricature,  and  thus,  in  so  far, 
upon  subjectivity,  distortion,  and  exaggeration,  the 
old  terms  Occident,  Orient,  yellow,  brown,  and  the 
full  portfolio  of  adjectives  will  be  considered  neces- 
sary. Alas  for  these  people,  when  ''the  gods"  dis- 
appear from  human  speech  and  imagination  !  To  the 
eye  of  science  these  words  and  notions  are  already 
waxing  old  and  are  ready  to  vanish  away.  Race- 
hatred and  animal  passions,  cuticular  repulsions  and 
jride  of  race,  religion,  and  inheritance  will  long  keep 
[the  idea  and  consider  its  maintenance  as  precious 
"Hhodoxy  that  the  Ja})an('S('  are  ''Mongolian," 
►riental,"  "tricky,"  "treacherous,"  and  in  every 
different  from  the  noble  Anglo-Saxon  and  the 
fud  European.  Yet  truth  is  mighty  and  must 
^ail. 

this  spirit,  seeking  truth  only,  we  see  no  reason 

|not  giving  a  fair  share  of  attention  to  the  retarded 

js  and  classes  in  the  Mikado's  empire.     It  is  to 

undying  glory  of  the  Meiji  Government  that  it 

not  only  enfranchised  the  former  pariahs  and 

;asts,  but  defended  and  elevated  the  Ainu  —  the 

litive  race  of  white  men,  savages  whose  Aryan 

xch  is  kindred  to  our  own  and  whose  lineaments 

)w  that  their  ancestors  and  ours  were  near  relatives. 

'Chus  history,  linguistics,  and  archaeology  reveal  our 

jhip  to  the  Japanese,  who  are  neither  a  pure  Mon- 

in,  nor  a  pure  Malay  race. 

'he  Aryan-speaking  white  race  in  Japan,  whose 
lern  representative  is  the  Ainu,  is  to  be  studied 


26  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

not  only  in  Yezo.  In  the  names  he  has  left  on  the 
landmarks,  in  deposits  of  refuse  in  the  soil,  in  his 
own  language,  folklore,  and  traditions,  his  history  is 
recoverable.  In  the  Japanese  writings  his  record  is 
clear. 

It  may  be  reasonably  concluded  that  the  Ainu  have 
dwelt  on  the  soil  of  the  islands  during  three  thousand 
years,  the  last  two  thousand  of  which  were  spent  in 
struggle  against  the  advancing  Yamato  men  and 
culture.  Yet  it  cannot  be  said,  as  was  affirmed  in 
1906  by  a  hostile  critic  of  the  Japanese  in  Korea, 
that  'Hhe  Japanese  eliminated  the  Ainu,"  as  it  is 
charged  he  will  do  in  Korea.  Instead  of  elimination, 
there  was  absorption.  The  Yamato  man  inter- 
married with  the  Ainu  and  to-day  the  white  man's 
blood  is  in  the  Japanese,  for  the  better  working  of 
his  own  brain,  the  improvement  of  his  own  potencies, 
and  the  beautifying  of  his  own  physiognomy.  The 
Aryan  features  in  the  Japanese  body  and  mind  are 
plainly  discernible,  and  in  thousands  of  typical 
instances  they  are  striking. 

Apart  from  agriculture  and  the  civilization  of  Japan 
and  looking  only  to  the  shell  heaps,  we  discern  prog- 
ress even  in  the  evolution  of  the  white  savage  Ainu. 
The  great  Edinburgh  archaeologist,  N.  Gordon  Munro, 
writes  at  the  end  of  his  ^'Primitive  Culture  in  Japan  " : 
^'The  contents  of  the  stone  age  is  an  excelsior;  in 
the  twilight  of  receding  time,  we  discern  the  foot- 
prints of  ascending  humanity." 

The  Ainu  hving  in  the  southwestern  part  of  Nippon 


are 

i 


^^^1 


tYAN  WHITE  RACE  IN  THE  ARCHIPELAGO    27 

driven  out,  subdued,  or  absorbed  in  various 
movements  of  population.  In  the  ancient  legends, 
reduced  to  writing,  over  a  thousand  years  after  the 
events  described,  the  chief  characters  are  seen  in  the 
same  haze  that  surrounds  people  in  fairy  tales.  The 
stories  about  them,  which  we  read  in  the  Records  and 
Chronicles,  are  not  opposed  to  truth,  but  only  to 
|Kt.  The  dates  assigned  are  indeed  arbitrarily 
Hagincd  or  pushed  back  into  antiquity,  and  hence 
are  nearly  worthless  for  chronology,  yet  they  afford 
ndant  data  to  the  student  of  manners,  customs, 
institutions. 

11  through  the  history  written  between  the  eighth 
the  seventeenth  centuries,  these  Aryan-speaking 
saVages  appear,  even  in  the  picture  painted  by  their 
mies,  not  as  cowards,  but  as  heroes.  They  put  up 
iff  fight  against  the  invaders  during  two  thousand 
years.  They  were  brave  warriors  fighting  for  what 
they  considered  their  own  and  their  native  land. 
Pere  Aloisius  Froes  wrote  from  Kioto,  March  1,  15G5, 
he  Ainu  as  being  "  bold  in  war,  and  much  feared 
the  Japanese."  Probably  the  oldest  bit  of  litera- 
ture in  the  language  of  Nippon  affords  proof  positive 
their  reputation  among  their  conquerors.  It  is  a 
r  song  ascribed  to  Jimmu  after  one  of  his  first 
victories  over  the  Ainu,  obtained,  be  it  noticed,  not 
fair  fight,  but  through  stratagem  and  treachery. 
is  highly  probable  that  the  songs  and  poems  in 
Kojiki  existed  long  before  the  composition  of  the 
k  (that  is,  712  a.d.),  furnishing  the  real  nucleus 


28  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

around  which  the  narratives  grew.  Certainly  the 
prose  seems  in  many  cases  to  have  been  written  up 
to  the  poetry. 

This  primitive  ditty  declares  that  one  Ainu,  accord- 
ing to  reputation,  is  a  match  for  one  hundred  of  his 
enemies. 

In  his  march  eastward,  Jimmu  routed  several 
bands  of  savages,  but  they  had  made  such  lively 
resistance  that  when  he  came  to  the  village  of  Osaka, 
in  Yamato  (not  the  later  big  city),  he  resorted  to 
trickery.  He  made  one  of  the  common  muro,  or  pit 
dwellings,  still  occupied  by  Ainu  and  formerly  by 
the  Eta.  He  then  invited  the  Ainu  or  Yemishi  to  a 
banquet,  supplying  them  with  plenty  of  rice  beer,  or 
sake.  Now,  to  this  day,  firewater  is  the  undoing  of 
these  ''Japanese  Indians,"  as  Marshal  Yamagata, 
when  crossing  the  American  continent  in  1896,  called 
them.  Next  to  bear  hunting,  the  Ainu's  passion  is 
for  alcoholic  liquor.  When  his  guests  were  well 
drunk,  having  previously  arranged  his  assassins, 
Jimmu  gave  a  preconcerted  signal.  Thereupon  the 
captain  of  the  band  struck  up  a  song.  The  traitors 
drew  their  weapons  and  stabbed  their  drunken  guests, 
slaughtering  them  to  the  last  man  —  ''so  that  there 
were  no  eaters  left."  The  delighted  victors  looked 
up  to  heaven  and  laughed. 

The  song  they  made  runs  thus :  — 

"  Though  folk  say, 
That  one  Yemishi  is  a  match  for  one  hundred  men, 
They  do  not  so  much  as  resist." 


I 


LYAN  WHITE  RACE  IN  THE  ARCHIPELAGO    29 


en  down  to  the  eighth  century,  the  soldiers  were 
accustomed  to  sing  this  ditty  and  then  laugh  heartily. 
During  the  thousand-years'  war,  continuing  even 
until  the  Russian  menace,  the  Southrons  won  as 
much  by  stratagem  as  by  open  battle.  Another  rude 
ditty,  in  which  Jimmu  gloated  over  his  smart  trick, 

cribed  to  him  and  reads  as  follows :  — 


Ho  !  Now  is  the  time  ! 
Ha!  Ha!     Pshaw! 
Even  now,  my  boys ! 
Even  now,  my  boys !  " 


^^is  ascriDc 

^^■Bfttcr  on,  it  is  recorded  (in  imitation  of  the  pom- 
pous Chinese  style  of  historiography  borrowed 
C(mturies  afterwards)  that  the  ''rebels"  in  the  five 
"Home  Provinces"  had  yielded,  but  the  savage 
outside  the  sea  were  still  active.  "Let  the 
g(?nerals  of  the  four  roads  now  make  haste  to  set 
'  ran  the  order.  A  few  nionllis  later,  quiet  was 
rted. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   MALAY   ELEMENT   IN   JAPAN 

On  the  great  drift  of  humanity  borne  to  the  Nippon 
archipelago  by  the  Black  Tide  (Kuro  Shiwo),  which 
the  solar  heat  of  the  tropics  forces  northward,  came 
those  elements  from  the  Southern  Oceanic  region 
called  Insulinde,  Idonesia,  Island  India,  or  the  Malay 
world,  that  are  traceable  in  the  Japanese  ethnic 
composite  and  social  organism.  Those  most  familiar 
with  the  races,  the  Mongol  or  Aryan  and  the  Malay, 
now  so  differentiated,  consider  that  in  the  Nippon 
composite  the  Malay  strain  predominates. 

Of  some  kinship,  near  or  remote,  between  the  Nippon 
islanders  and  the  peoples  of  peninsular  Asia,  there 
can  be  no  question.  Outward  resemblances  and 
mental  phenomena  are  too  close  to  doubt  that,  in 
varying  degrees,  indeed,  the  islanders  and  southern 
continentals  have  common  inheritances  in  blood, 
physical  and  mental  traits,  traditions,  mythology, 
superstitions,  and  customs. 

The  average  Japanese  physique  does  not  closely 
resemble  the  human  type  of  northern  Continental 
Asia.  A  thousand  Chinese  or  Koreans  picked  up  at 
random  would  equal  in  stature  an  average  thousand 

30 


THE  MALAY   ELEMENT  IX  JAPAN  31 

Europeans  or  Americans.  The  Manchurians  might 
surpass  them.  A  thousand  Japanese  fall  decidedly 
below  both  the  Occidental  and  the  Continental 
Asian  average.  In  the  short  legs,  low  stature,  delicate 
limbs  of  the  Japanese,  we  recognize  the  Malay  even 
more  than  the  Mongol.  The  Emperor  Mutsuhito 
shows  in  his  countenance  the  Malay  type. 

The  Japanese  dwelling-house  never  had  its  origin 
in  China.  In  its  evolution  it  is  a  Malay  structure, 
modified  by  Ainu  inheritances  and  the  material  and 
example  found  in  the  soil.  It  is  not  earth-floored  as 
in  India,  or  brick  or  stone  bottomed  as  among  the 
Chinese  and  Koreans.  It  is  built  on  posts,  and  the 
floor,  raised  ai)ove  ground,  is  mat-covered.  Light 
and  frail  in  structure,  it  is  developed  from  a  type 
pnwalcnt  in  a  tropical  or  subtropical  region.  In 
general  idea,  it  is  the  Malay  house,  made  of  wood, 
cane,  paper,  and  matting.  In  details  it  is  an  evolu- 
tion from  Ainu  originals. 

China  and  Korea  are  the  lands  of  stone  and  brick 
dwellings.  Japan  builds  with  the  reeds,  grass,  bam- 
boo, and  forest  trees.  Almost  all  her  architecture  is 
impermanent  and  perishable.  Even  her  stone  work 
is  but  imitation  of  carpentry.  Her  noblest  perma- 
nent edifices  are  Buddhist,  their  motive  having 
been  brought  from  India  or  China.  The  simplicity 
of  the  pagoda  and  earlier  religious  structures,  as  at 
Nara,  suggests  Hindu  thought  or  Chinese  edifices 
developed  from  the  bamboo.  The  later  luxuriance 
of  Nikko  and  Shiba  consists  mainly  of  multiplicity 


32  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

of  detail,  the  elaboration  of  carpentry,  and  over- 
decoration. 

The  Shinto  temple  is  not  suggested  by  a  tent,  a 
bamboo  stem,  or  a  pagoda.  It  is  but  the  evolution 
of  the  primitive  hut  of  cane  and  straw.  As  in  Ma- 
lay lands,  the  rafters  are  crossed  at  the  ends.  The 
transverse  pieces,  set  at  right  angles  across  the  roof- 
tree,  now  become  logs,  or  beams,  and  often  resplen- 
dent with  the  golden  Imperial  chrysanthemum,  are 
but  the  developed  sticks  and  withes  along  the  ridge- 
pole of  the  original  structure.  At  Ise  —  Mecca  of 
gods  and  men  —  the  edifices,  precious  but  evanescent, 
are  torn  down  and  renewed  every  twenty  years. 

The  typical  Japanese  house  has  many  things  about 
it  to  suggest  a  Malay  original.  Its  prototype  was 
in  the  South  and  not  in  the  North.  Its  simplicit}^, 
lightness,  cleanliness,  its  general  air  of  all  outdoors 
brought  under  a  roof,  its  lack  of  aids  to  privacy, 
tell  of  the  tropical  hut  in  the  far  South,  and  not  of  the 
felt  tent  of  the  Mongol  or  the  brick  house  of  China. 
Indeed,  in  early  ages,  as  the  old  literature,  especially 
in  the  touching  love  story  of  the  Maiden  of  Unahi, 
shows,  some  of  the  islanders  were  lake-dwellers. 
Others  had  habitations  raised  considerably  above  the 
ground,  like  the  Ainu  storehouses  of  to-day. 

In  the  matter  of  heating,  there  is  no  sign  in  the 
Japanese  house  of  the  kang,  or  system  of  flues,  for 
the  warming  of  the  living  and  sleeping  rooms,  so 
universal  in  Chinese  lands  and  notably  in  Korea. 
For  bodily  warmth,  the  Japanese,  as  the  cold  strength- 


THE  MALAY   ELEMENT  IX  JAPAX  33 

uts  on  a  new  stratum  of  garments.  He  removes 
the  chill  indoors  and  warms  his  hands  over  a  brazier 
of  charcoal.  In  the  kitchen  there  is  no  oven  or  stove, 
set  up  first  for  cooking  and  then  for  utilization  of  heat 
by  means  of  flues  for  chamber  warmth,  with  chim- 
neys at  the  other  end  of  the  house,  as  in  Korea.  In 
thii  Japanese  house,  only  a  gable  or  roof-hole  lets  out 
tlie  smoke.  Japan,  despite  the  story  of  Nintoku  and 
th(»  European  associations  with  house  smoke,  is  not 
a  land  of  chimneys  but  only  of  gable-holes  or  kitchen- 
vents.  Innumerable  are  the  references  to  these  in 
Japanese  literature  and  in  Ainu  folksongs.  Indeed, 
the  general  scope  in  the  Manyo  poems  and  in  Ainu 
lore  as  to  things  domestic  is  much  the  same.  Not  a 
little  poetry,  legend,  and  ritual  tell  of  these  exits 
made  by  man  for  smoke  but  utilized  by  birds,  that  in 
flying  might  defile  food.  Prayer  for  ceremonial 
purity  was  in  view  of  a  possible  ''calamity  from  a 
god  on  high."  Even  the  soot  that  first  forms  and 
the  creosote  that  varnishes  rafters  and  roof,  in  the 
Ainu  as  in  the  pre-ancient  hut  of  Yamato,  furnished 
theme  for  poetry. 

Again  in  contrast  to  Chinese  fashion,  the  Japanese 
fib  the  floor.  China  is  a  land  of  chairs.  Both  the 
male  Kingdom  and  the  pupil  nations  elevate  their 
bodies  when  sedentary,  but  Ainu  and  Japanese 
utilize  their  heels.  The  Chinese  always  employed 
raised  devices.  The  Japanese  method  for  ages  has 
l)een  nature's  own.  As  in  the  chairless  southern 
islands,  they  made  use  of  matting.     In  the  normal 


34  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

house  in  Nippon,  as  in  Ainu  homes,  were  mats  only. 
Beginning  in  childhood  when  the  bones  are  soft, 
the  natives  were  able  to  make  of  the  space  between 
knee  and  instep  one  level  line.  In  this  position, 
without  falling  asleep  at  the  wrong  end,  they  could 
be  comfortable  for  hours.  This  also  is  the  true  Malay 
as  well  as  Ainu  style,  though  the  latter  often  cross 
their  legs. 

The  only  raised  devices  used  for  dignified  repose 
were  the  general's  war  campstool,  the  bonze's  sedilla 
for  meditation,  the  abbot's  cathedra,  the  chairs  used 
at  funerals,  the  Mikado's  mat  throne,  and  the  Shogun's 
imitation  of  it,  both  only  four  inches  high.  When 
Commodore  Perry  in  1853  came  to  Kurihama  to 
deliver  President  Millard  Fillmore's  letter  and  the 
Yedo  Authorities  knew  from  the  Dutch  interpreters 
that  their  guest  must  sit,  they  made  requisition 
on  the  nearest  Buddhist  temple  for  two  or  more 
funeral  chairs,  in  which  the  portly  Commodore 
deposited  his  bulk  in  correct  style. 

Later  visitors  in  Japanese  houses,  in  trying  to 
utilize  their  heels  as  chair  bottoms,  were  promptly 
compelled,  in  order  to  secure  proper  circulation  of 
the  blood  and  avoid  paralysis,  to  stretch  out  their 
legs  impolitely. 

Since  the  introduction  of  chairs  into  public  schools, 
homes,  railway  cars,  —  and  the  author  was  the  first 
to  introduce  the  American  rocking-chair  into  the  old 
Ainul  land  of  Koshi,  or  Echizen,  —  the  legs  of  the 
Japanese  have  lengthened  in   one   generation   over 


THE  MALAY  ELEMENT  IX  JAPAN  35 

a  half  inch.  The  measurements  of  a  million  men 
measured  for  the  army  between  1871  and  1907 
prove  this  fact  —  doubted  and  scouted  when  first 
announced  by  the  writer  in  Tfw  Nation  of  New 
York  —  but  true  beyond  a  doubt.  In  1892,  of 
348,347  men  put  under  the  tape,  lO.OG  per  cent 
were  5.4  shaku  (foot  of  ten  inches  and  over)  and 
20.17  were  below  5.0  shaku.  In  1902,  of  431,093 
conscripts  examined,  12.67  were  over  5.4  shaku, 
and  16.20  were  below  5.0  shaku.  The  Japanese 
are  becoming  taller  and  soon  will  reach  the  Ainu 
standard  of  height. 

Note  the  Japanese  carpenter  in  i)lanning  and 
erecting  a  house.  As  with  the  Ainu  hut-builder,  the 
roof  is  a  structure  by  itself,  and  is  made  and  joined 
together  first.  It  is  then  elevated  to  the  desired 
height  —  "a  survival,  possibly,  of  the  time  when  the 
roof  was,  constructively,  the  house."  Most  of  the 
ceremonies  at  the  completion  of  a  roof  and  of  the 
house  proper  are  with  Ainu  and  Japanese  builders 
virtually  the  same. 

Study  first  an  Ainu  hut  and  then  a  Japanese  house, 
and  we  see  an  advanced  evolution.  Instead  of  the 
floor  of  hard  or  pounded  earth  in  the  primitive  hut, 
there  is  a  raised  platform,  on  which  are  sewed  mats 
made  of  rice  straw  and  covered  with  fine  smooth 
sedge.  These,  of  rigid  proportions  in  their  three 
dimensions,  are  spread  as  on  a  chessboard,  and  a 
room  is  measured  by  the  number  of  mats  in  it.  The 
rush  mats  of  the  Ainu  hut  have  become  the  sewed  and 


36  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

padded  tatami  of  the  civilized  home  set  on  a  hidden 
wooden  floor. 

The  Ainu  fireplace,  in  the  centre  of  the  floor, 
survives  in  the  Japanese  peasant's  lowly  hut  in  almost 
unchanged  form,  but  in  the  house  of  the  well-to-do 
we  see  it  in  the  kotatsu  used  for  personal  warmth 
only  of  the  sleeping  or  sitting  room.  Under  the 
middle  tatami,  or  little  square  trap-mat,  one  will  find 
facilities  for  comfort,  as  told  in  '^The  Mikado's 
Empire,"  p.  414. 

In  Ainu,  ''daily  bread"  means  fish.  In  Japanese 
households  the  god  of  daily  food,  represented  by  the 
idol  Ebisu  (who  may  be  an  Ebisu  or  Ainu,  despite 
the  proposed  derivation  from  the  verb  ehi,  to  smile), 
holds  a  fishing  pole  in  his  hand  and  has  a  tax,  or  sea- 
bream,  under  his  arm.  This  ancient  Ainu  Kamui, 
or  kami,  unknown  either  to  early  Buddhism  or 
Shinto,  and  not  in  the  pantheon  until  the  twelfth 
century,  is  a  genuine  growth  of  the  aboriginal  soil. 
Ebisu,  or  Yebisu,  is  one,  and  the  only  native  one,  of 
the  seven  gods  or  patrons  of  happiness,  and  is  found 
in  thousands  of  houses.  He  is  probably  one  of  the 
myriad  inheritances  from  Ainu  ancestry  and  the  Ainu 
seon. 

In  building  the  Japanese  house,  which  is  Malay  and 
Ainu,  rather  than  Chinese,  the  native  carpenter  still 
follows  southern  traditions.  Light  and  flimsy  is  the 
house  frame,  but  it  supports  the  heaviest  tree-trunk 
timbers  in  the  roof  structure.  Weight  is  placed  at 
the  top  as  a  provision  against  earthquakes,  so  that 


THE  MALAY  ELEMENT  IN  JAPAN 


37 


the  shaking  of  the  house  will  come  after  the  earth's 
oscillations  are  over.  Like  his  fellow-Malay  crafts- 
men, the  Nippon  daiku  uses  no  struts  or  diagonal 
supports.  His  kura,  or  fireproof  storehouse,  made  of 
heavy  timbers,  thickly  armored  with  mud  and  coated 
with  gypsum  enamel,  is  a  Malay  affair  with  a  (modern) 
Malay  name,  gadang,  or  "go-down,"  as  the  foreigners 

its  equipment  and  anchor,  a  Japanese   sailing 

el  is  of    Malay  rather  than  of    Chinese  origin. 

ts  lightness  and  grace,  it  appears  to  be  developed 

the  prahu  rather  than  the  junk.     In  the  making 

of_the  ancient  canoes  by  hollowing  out  trees,  or  rather 

two  halves  of  one  tree,  and  then  making,  not  a 

"gout  from  a  single  log,  but  by  joining  togctluT  the 

0  hollowed-out  halves,  either  longwise  or  side  wise, 

Nipponese  did  not  follow  Continental  but  rather 

hern  models. 

he  Chinese  and  their  neighbors  are  famous  for 
gear.     Korea  is  the  land  of  hats,  with  a  luxuri- 
ous language  of  cap,  toque,   helmet,  and  hair-net. 
Japanese  are  a  hatless  nation.     Following  the 
oms  of  their  distant  ancestors,  they  wear  ''roofs," 
large   round   chip   protections   against   rain   and 
stroke,  but  in  old  days  usually  a  fan  and  a  top- 
knot   sufficed    the    average    Nipponese.     At    Court 
wore  caps  —  borrowed  from  China  —  to  denote 
k,  but  the  commoners  wore  southern  headgear. 
The  pilgrim  bound  up  his  head.     The  soldier  donned 


Th- 

^^■JHhsl 
^knot 

^^lik, 


38  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

shaped  structure  of  lacquered  paper  on  his  cranium 
to  denote  rank,  the  Court  noble  or  kuge  wore  a  skull- 
cap, and  the  Mikado  had  a  sheet  of  gold,  set  up  like 
a  sail,  instead  of  a  feather,  but  the  true  hat  was 
unknown  in  old  Japan.  In  headgear,  or  the  lack  of 
it,  the  early  Japanese  followed  fashions  prevalent  in 
the  southern  islands  of  cane  and  broad  leaves. 

In  the  middle  ages,  as  defensive  armor  developed, 
the  soldier  shaved  his  forehead  to  keep  his  hair  out 
of  his  eyes  in  battle,  and  pomatumed  his  hair  into  a 
percussion  gun  hammer-shaped  topknot  that  rested 
within  the  slit  made  in  his  helmet's  buckskin  lining. 
In  time  all  classes  followed  this  fashion.  In  probably 
most,  if  not  all,  other  developments  the  Continental 
fashions  were  avoided,  and  the  ancestral  Malay 
traditions  followed.  The  women  wore  only  their 
own  glossy  hair,  duly  coifed  according  to  their  vir- 
ginity, wifehood,  widowhood,  or  retirement  from 
matrimonial  possibilities.  Except  the  imperial  or 
noble  lady's  special  hair  or  head  badge  of  rank,  the 
bride's  floss  silk  cap,  the  lady's  winter  covering  of 
silk  for  face  and  head,  the  pilgrim's  wrap  and  "roof," 
and  the  working  girl's  kerchief,  the  Japanese  women 
of  old  knew  nothing  of  true  hats  or  bonnets.  In 
China  a  cap  for  the  women,  in  Japan  a  kerchief ! 

In  our  day,  indeed,  the  Japanese  seem  to  be  a 
nation  of  people  living  between  felt  and  leather, 
modern  hats  and  shoes,  with  the  old-time  garb  in 
between  unchanged,  but  anciently  they  went  bare- 
headed and  barefooted,   or  wore  only  "roofs"   or 


THE  MALAY   ELEMENT  IN  JAPAN  39 

clogs.  Japanese  footgear  is  not  Chinese,  rather  Ma- 
lay. The  Chinese  wear  a  true  shoe.  The  Japanese 
clog  or  sandal  divides  by  its  thong  the  'Toot  thumb" 
and  the  toes.  In  the  amazing  prehensile  power  of 
his  big  toe,  in  his  capacity,  rivalling  that  of  the 
monkey,  to  use  from  babyhood  his  arms  and  hands 
in  a  wonderful  variety  of  ways,  to  climb,  grip,  play 
the  acrobat  (as  seen,  for  example,  in  the  sailors  and 
firemen)  to  practise  ju-jutsu,  the  Japanese  shows  his 

y,  not  his  Mongol  inheritance. 

e  Japanese  woman,  the  great  conservative,  and 

therefore   most   likely   to   keep   ancestral   traits,    is 

almost  wholly  Malay  in  her  make-up   and   therein 

nidically  different  from  the  Chinese.     Kissing  is  not 

ised  in  eastern  Asia.     It  is  a  lost  art,  if  indeed 

it^as  ever  known,  but  the  painting,  and  especially 

lig gilding,  of  the  lower  lips  is  of  southern  and  insular, 

of  Continental  origin.  The  geisha,  the  oiran,  the 
or'Sinary  peasant  girl,  and  the  lady  in  old  Japan, 
painted  or  gilded  the  lower  lip,  even  as  do  certain 
tribes  of  Island  India.  Married  women  blackened 
their  teeth.  So  also  did  the  kuge,  or  Kioto  noble, 
who  in  luxurious  effeminacy  imitated  his  lady  friends. 
This  dyeing  of  the  teeth  is  a  Malay  custom,  and 
probably  in  its  origin  is  allied  to  or  derived  from  the 
reddish  discoloration  of  the  teeth  by  betel  chewing. 
As^  a  sign  of  her  wifehood  and  as  protection  against 

lustful  conqueror,  the  Ainu  woman  tattooed  in 
ache-shape  the  space  around  her  mouth. 
The  ancient  sword  customs  in  Japan  seem   but 


there 
almo.' 
radicj 

it  wa 
ordi 


^^Ht 


40  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

replicas  of  Malay  originals.  The  worship  of  the 
sword,  which  was  often  deified,  and  especially  the 
laying  up  of  a  sword  of  fame  in  a  renowned  shrine, 
is  a  well-known  Malay  custom.  This  ceremony  is 
mentioned  repeatedly  in  the  Chronicles,  notably  when 
Yamato  Dake  went  east  to  conquer  the  Ainu.  As 
late  as  1870  such  a  method  of  statecraft  was  in  vogue. 
The  Satsuma  clan  —  that  fierce,  powerful,  and  brainy 
body  of  men,  in  whom  is  so  much  both  of  Malay  and 
Ainu  or  Aryan  blood,  and  which  has  so  often  run 
amuck  in  Japanese  history  —  had,  after  bearing  the 
brunt  of  the  civil  war,  sulked  and  gone  away  to  their 
far  southern  home,  in  which  the  Ama  people  had  made 
landfall  from  the  skies.  The  handful  of  young  men 
holding  the  young  Emperor  in  Tokio,  then  newly 
named,  were  left  without  revenue  and  without  sol- 
diers. How  to  get  back  their  late  compatriotic  allies 
was  the  problem. 

The  device  of  sword  dedication  was  hit  upon. 
The  Emperor  sent  two  of  his  ablest  men,  Iwakura 
and  Okubo,  as  envoys,  who  deposited  a  sword  at  the 
shrine  of  the  ^^god"  Shokoku  Daimiojin,  which  was 
the  posthumous  name  of  the  kinsman  of  the  living 
and  powerful  daimio  of  Satsuma,  Shimadzu  Saburo. 
The  clan  was  reconciled  and  brought  back  to  obedi- 
ence by  this  decidedly  Malay-Japanese  stroke  of 
policy.  Besides  enshrining  the  sword  of  repute,  the 
Mikado  took  an  oath  'Ho  exalt  the  destinies  of  the 
State."  Traditional  custom  made  this  consecration 
of  a  sword   a  master-move   on  the   chessboard   of 


apa 

w 

aps 
ijiat( 

m 


THE  MALAY   ELEMENT  IN  JAPAN  41 

State,  especially  when  it  was  accompanied  by  the/^ 
Station  to  Satsuma  to  begin  the  new  navy  and  the 
ionaf  army  by  furnishing  four  regiments  of  in- 
fantry, and  thus  prospectively  to  raise  from  their  own 
clan  most  of  the  now  famous  colonels,  generals,  and 
admirals. 
The  original  of  the  Japanese  sword,  about  which 
■oluminous  body  of  literature,  poetry,  sentiment, 
and  traditions  has  gathered,  is  not  to  be  found  in  the 
cleavers,  choppers,  and  clumsy  blades  of  Continental 
Asia,  but  rather  in  the  graceful  Malay  kriss  —  a 
flash  of  lightning  in  steel.  Whether  straight,  curved, 
or  zigzag,  the  Malay  kriss  is  slight,  strong,  steel- 
edged,  well-tempered,  and  often  superbly  and  elabo- 
rately wrought  with  emblem  and  ornamentation  on 
the  flat  of  the  blade  —  an  original  model  which  the 
Japanese  have  followed. 

'he  most  characteristic  part  of  the  furniture  of  the 
anese  weapon  is  its  scabbard,  which  has  for  its 
niaterial  not  hide  or  metal,  but  wood.  In  the  beginning 
ihings,  this  was  purposely  so  made,  so  as  to  use 
e   sword   suddenly,    sheathed   or   unsheathed,    for 
ttack  or  defence.     Here  we  have  but  the  evolution 
Bie  Malay  case  of  wood  or  cane,  which  only  slightly 
covers  or  holds  the  steel   bolo  or  kriss.     In  some 

r3,  the  bivalve  sheath,  or  two  wooden  halves  of 
scabbard,  are  merely  tied  together  with  withes, 
which  fall  apart  when  the  blow  is  struck  quickly 
without  drawing  or  uncovering.  Terrific  speed  in 
use  has  ever  been  the  trait  of  the  swordsmen  of  Nippon. 


42  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

The  rapidity  of  use,  the  suddenness  of  attack  in  the 
old  ronin  days  when  we  ahens  in  the  land  knew 
what  to  expect  from  the  assassin,  and  the  lightning- 
like stroke  —  often  from  behind  —  was  suggestive, 
as  are  frequent  modern  instances,  of  the  Malay  run- 
ning amuck. 

When  in  the  snowstorm  of  March  25,  1860,  the 
train  of  Lord  li,  premier  of  Yedo,  was  attacked  with- 
out a  second's  notice,  the  defenders  met  lightning 
with  lightning.  They  fought  with  unsheathed  swords, 
until  the  split  wood  of  their  scabbards  allowed  the 
edged  weapons  to  be  worthy  of  the  courage  and 
muscle  opposed  to  them. 

The  almost  universal  custom  of  tattooing,  instead 
of  branding,  which  was  Chinese,  suggests  Malay 
or  southern  origin.  At  first,  in  some  known  cases, 
a  special  design  serving  as  the  mark  of  a  criminal 
of  rank,  this  indelible  picture-making  on  the  skin 
became  quite  general  among  the  lower  classes.  I 
read  first  on  human  hide  many  a  '^  color  print,"  and 
studied  the  Ukio-ye,  or  ^'passing  world"  phase  of 
art  on  walking  picture  galleries.  I  made  my  initial 
acquaintance  with  many  heroes  and  heroines  of 
fairyland  and  popular  actors  by  recognizing  their 
lineaments  and  experiences  on  the  backs  of  my 
jin-riki-sha  men. 

One  of  the  most  striking  war  customs  of  the  Nip- 
ponese was  derived  from  their  ancestral  Indonese 
habit  of  head-hunting.  This  was  and  is  so  common 
among  the   southern   islanders,   that   the   Japanese 


^    U^4iV. 

\;^irft>-C-i-UV:i/ 

r 

Tatt(k>ki)  Lkttkr  Carrikr,  1870 


THE  MALAY   ELEMENT  IN  JAPAN  43 

Formosa  since  1895  have  found  it  extremely 
difficult  to  extirpate  the  custom.  Collection  of  heads 
after  a  battle  was  the  regular  course  of  procedure 
in  Japanese  warfare  until  18()8.  Reports  were  duly 
made  and  the  official  counts  recorded.  The  heads  of 
officers,  or  of  those  prominent  among  the  Ainu,  ^'the 

ds,"  "the  savages,"  or  "the  Koreans,"  were 
g  up  on  lines  of  rope,  each  properly  ticketed 
with  the  name  of  the  former  possessor.  The  inspec- 
tion of  these  furnished  some  of  "the  stern  joy  which 
warriors  feel  in  foemen"  that  have  felt  their  might. 
Many   noble    families,   like   that   of   Arai    Hakuseki 

56-1725),  for  example,  owe  their  elevation  to  an 

stor  who   "in   some   battle  had   taken  a  good 

head."     In  the  Korean  campaign  of  1592-1598,  it 

was  not  possible,  on  account  of  bulk  and  lack  of 

antiseptic  provision,  to  transport  all  the  heads  of  the 

Koreans ;  so  ears  and  noses  —  several  myriads  — 

re  cut  off,  pickhnl,  and  sent  over  to  Japan.     Duly 

inscribed    with   Sanskrit,    the   mimi-dzuka ,   or   Ear- 

b,  is  still  to  be  seen  on  its  mound  in  Kioto. 

apanese  polo,  or  dakiu,  which  has  not  one  or  two, 
scores  of  balls  to  be  knocked  out,  is  but  an 

lutionary  expression  in  peaceful  time  of  head- 
iunting.  The  fascinating  game,  in  savage  sociol- 
C"gy,  of  securing  a  certain  number  of  human  noddles 
before  one  can  get  a  wife  or  a  warrior's  reputation,  is 
reproduced  on  horseback.  In  the  twelfth  century, 
Yoritomo  (1147-1199),  in  order  to  keep  his  soldier 
braves  busy  and  in  training  during  the  relaxing  times 


^r^eb 


head 
was 
^ antis 


44  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

of  peace,  ordained  deer  and  boar  hunts  on  the  moun- 
tains. Such  exercises  in  that  day,  when  war  meant 
chiefly  the  display  of  personal  prowess,  and  scientific 
formations  were  practically  unknown,  served  in  lieu 
of  drills.  Yoritomo  went  further  and  organized  polo, 
—  the  balls  to  represent  in  peace  time  the  heads  of 
enemies.  In  the  evolution  of  the  game,  the  reds 
represented  the  Heike  and  the  whites  the  Genji. 
Whatever  suggestions  came  from  Persia  or  the 
West,  dakiu  among  the  Japanese  was  a  traditional 
reproduction,  first  of  the  head-hunting  of  their 
Malay  ancestors  and  then  of  the  Minamoto  and  Taira 
struggles,  with  their  red  and  white  insignia.  It 
certainly  acted  to  some  extent,  at  least,  as  a  prevent- 
ive to  the  tendency  of  turbulent  sword-wearers  to 
cut  off  each  other's  heads. 

Was  this  Malay  invasion,  or  infusion,  which  is  said 
to  give  the  reddish  tint  to  the  Japanese  complexion, 
manifold  ?  In  the  southern  drift  of  humanity  brought 
northward  on  Nippon  shores,  were  there  also  various 
other  stocks,  such  as  Negrito,  Oceanic,  Mongol,  or 
Ingorott,  in  addition  to  nobler  strains  from  Malaysia  ? 

The  known  data  do  not  yet  permit  us  to  speak  with 
certainty.  In  agricultural  and  war  customs,  in  per- 
sonal adornment  of  the  human  body  and  in  house  and 
dwelling,  in  the  art,  pottery,  and  relics  of  Nippon, 
we  discern  Malay  originals,  yes,  even  Negrito  traces. 
Even  in  Buddhist  art  we  find  negroid  features.  Was 
this  idea,  so  far  as  it  is  embodied  in  art,  imported 
from   India,  where  the   fair  Aryans,  including  the 


THE  MALAY   ELEMENT  IN  JAPAN 


45 


"I 


BE 


Shaka  clan,  had  subdued  the  dark-skinned  natives? 
he  negroid  features  of  some  of  the  Buddhas  the 
expression    of    hope    and    inheritance    of    salvation 
ugh  Buddha,  of  the  black  Japanese,  if  there  be 
such?    Have  we  here  an  analogy  to  St.  Bar- 
olomew  the  Moor,  or  Simon  of  Cyrene,  in  Christian 
? 

the  conjectural  and  unscientific  identification  of 

the  Eta  with  ''curly-haired  negroids"  I  have  no  faith, 

do  I  believe  that  the  Negrito  element  entered 

y  great  extent  into  the  Japanese  composite. 

at  of  the  traditional  race  of  pigmies,  said  to 

preceded  the  Ainu? 

o  not  accept  the  theory  of  the  pits,  or  so-called 
pit-dwellings  found  in  Yezo  and  other  parts  of  Japan, 
as  trustworthy  evidence  of  the  existence,  before  the 
Ainu,  of  a  race  of  dwarfs  called  Kobito,  or  Koropok- 
guru,  as  some  writers  have  argued.  Some  of  the 
Hokkaido  natives  still  use  pit-dwellings  for  warmth 
inter,  and  abandon  them  as  summer  comes, 
most  archaic  type  of  human  habitations  in 
apan  is  still  in  use  by  the  people  who  were  pariahs 
ta  until  1871.  We  read  of  the  existence  of  these 
that  is,  the  Ainu  dwellings  in  pits,  or  artificial 
caves,  in  the  earliest  records,  of  their  being  dug,  of 
stops  leading  down  into  them,  of  their  doors  open- 
ing inwards,  of  their  raised  platforms  for  sleeping, 
eir  thatched  roofs,  and  of  their  wooden  frames 
ed  together  with  creeping  vines.  Sometimes 
these  muro,  which  were  used  by  people  of  high  or  low 


Japai 

mi 

ca,ves 
stops 
hig  h 

^^flHe( 


46  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

condition  alike,  were  large  enough  to  hold  scores  of 
persons  at  once.  Small  muro  were  used  as  ice  houses. 
In  modern  days  a  muro  is  a  chamber,  pit,  vat, 
vault,  ordinary  apartment  underground,  or  room  of 
any  sort,  or  a  gardener's  forcing-bed.  Japanese, 
Koreans,  and  Ainu  are  pit-dwellers  on  occasions  and 
in  time  of  need.  On  a  large  scale  in  Manchuria,  the 
Mikado's  army  made  muro,  or  underground  '^dug- 
outs," roofed  with  millet  stalk  piled  with  earth,  dur- 
ing the  winter  of  1905-1906.  In  Japan  the  people 
who  work  in  straw  and  leather  use  muro,  or  pit- 
dwellings,  from  October  until  March  or  April,  and 
some  employ  them  as  workshops  all  the  year  round, 
the  damp  warmth  of  these  cellars  being  supposed  to 
facilitate  the  manipulation  of  their  materials.  Dug 
freshly  each  autumn,  the  muro  is  apart  from  the  main 
house,  usually  to  the  depth  of  one  and  a  half  to  two 
feet,  with  a  passage  leading  out,  the  upheaved  dirt 
forming  a  sort  of  low  wall.  The  inner  surface  of  this 
embankment  a  foot  or  more  from  the  side  of  the  pit, 
forms  a  ledge  serving  as  shelf  or  table.  From  this 
embankment,  the  poles  used  to  make  the  roof  frame 
run  up  to  the  ridge-pole,  being  bound  by  straw  in 
two  layers,  with  a  stratum  of  earth  laid  in  between, 
like  a  sandwich,  to  keep  in  the  warmth.  The  window 
is  of  paper  stretched  on  a  wooden  lattice.  Usually 
a  storm  screen,  or  gable,  is  added  afterwards  to 
protect  the  flimsy  lights  from  rain  or  snow.  The 
entrance  has  a  bit  of  coarse  matting  to  shield  it,  and 
inside  is  a  ladder  of  poles  with  one  or  two  rundles. 


THE  MALAY   ELEMENT   L\  JAPAN 


47 


The  apartment  thus  made  is  a  single  one,  with  mats 
below  on  the  floor  and  sides.  Although  the  height 
from  floor  to  rafter  is  six  feet  or  over,  there  is  not 
much  room  for  walking  upriglit  because  of  the  sloping 
roof  sides.  In  some  old  Eta  houses  there  is  an 
earthen-floored  chamber  below  the  level  of  the  outside 
ground  (and  I  saw  many  of  this  sort  of  dwellings  in 
Koshi),  to  which  a  low  window  supplied  heat  and 
light.  Munro,  of  whose  descriptive  language  we  have 
made  use,  who  looks  on  the  Ainu  story  of  the  little 
folks  as  ''inference  myths,  like  the  elves  and  pigmies 
of  Europe,"  derives  the  word  muro,  now  a  Japanese 
word,  from  the  Ainu  ynu,  to  slant,  and  ro,  a  syllable 
applied  to  some  part  of  the  hut,  such  as  hearth,  or 
end  of  the  fireplace.  Evidently  the  modern  and  the 
ancient  Eta  muro  had  an  Ainu  original. 

a  word,  here  in  the  Ainu  and  Eta  "shack,"  as 
noticeably  in  its  ridge-pole  and  cross-ties,  we 
rnfiy  have  also  the  original  and  motive  of  Shinto 
temple  architecture,  modified  by  Malay  thought  and 
custom. 


^R9W 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   IDZUMO   CYCLE   OF   LEGENDS 

Without  doubt  the  Ainu,  a  white  race  of  people, 
speaking  an  Aryan  tongue,  once  inhabited  all  Japan. 
When  the  scribes  wrote  their  annals,  he  was  'Hhe 
Canaanite  then  in  the  land"  to  the  elect  people  who 
came  down  from  Heaven.  The  oldest  mountain, 
river,  and  place  names  confirm  the  written  records 
as  to  these  facts.  Even  when  conquered,  the  Ainu 
remained  numerously  on  the  soil  as  concubines,  serfs, 
slaves,  and  servants,  or  honored  citizens,  blending 
their  blood  and  race  traits  with  those  of  the  con- 
querors. So  the  records  tell  us,  so  the  Japanese  mind 
and  face  show  to-day. 

But  who  and  what  were  these  men  who,  besides 
subduing  aborigines,  Ainu,  Malay,  and  others,  were 
for  many  centuries  ignorant  of  such  countries  as  those 
we  call  Korea  and  China  ?  It  is  not  certain  that  sail- 
boats, or  vessels  having  other  motors  than  oars,  were 
known  until  well  into  the  Christian  era.  The  Manyo 
poems  suggest  this.  Who,  then,  were  the  conquerors 
of  the  Ainu  ?  Were  they  Semitic,  Tartar,  Malay,  old 
Chinese,  or  Northern  Asiatic  people  who  had  moved 
through  Korea  to  the  islands  ? 

48 


THE  IDZUMO  CYCLE  OF   LEGENDS  49 

data  yet  accessible  can  satisfactorily  answer 
this  question.  From  the  combination  of  written 
traditions  and  the  evidences  of  archieology,  we  can 
at  least  form  in  our  minds  a  picture  of  externals  and 
learn  what  were  the  opinions  current  in  Yamato 
(which  was  known  in  China  in  the  third  century) 
when  Continental  writing  came  into  use  and  books 
made  their  appearance.  By  that  time,  all  memory 
of  their  former  ancestral  seats,  both  in  the  south(»rn 
Pacific  or  in  the  river  valleys  or  highlands  of  Asia, 
had  been  lost.  Yamato,  the  land  dwelt  in,  is  fairy- 
land on  which  the  sun  shines,  while  the  blue  Plain 
of  Heaven  is  just  above.  Little  or  nothing  of  the 
Continent  is  suggested. 

e  fusion  of  Malay  or  oceanic  folk  and  the  people 

a  far-off  land  with  the  Yamato  community,  is 

reflected   in  the   Kojiki,  or  Records,  which  tell   the 

nings  of  the  Japanese  nation,  for  here  we  find 

nee  a  mixture  both  of  races  and  mythologies  in 

atjeast  two,  or  more  probably  three,  cycles  or  strata 

ries.  Some  of  the  narratives  are  already  colored 
o"r"lnodified  by  Chinese  ideas  that  had  done  their 

before  documents  existed.     Perhaps  there  may 

been  two  great  migrations  from  Asia  of  the  same 
race  at  different  epochs.  We  see  one  tribe  or  house, 
that  of  Yamato,  becoming  paramount  in  the  archi- 
p(?lago  and  very  busy  in  effacing  all  evidences  of 
former  rule  or  government.  These  people  are  seen 
establishing  with  the  sword  the  same  doctrine  as  that 
sot  forth  in  the  first  clause  which  opens  the  constitu- 


m 


50  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

tion  of  1889  —  ''The  Empire  of  Japan  shall  be  reigned 
over  and  governed  by  a  line  of  Emperors  unbroken 
from  ages  eternal." 

No  people  in  all  the  world  have  excelled  or  can  excel 
the  Japanese  in  manufacturing  history  to  order,  and 
in  this  art  theirs  are  quite  equal  to  other  lords  spiritual 
and  temporal,  the  sovereigns  of  the  state  and  other 
high  churches  of  Europe  and  elsewhere,  in  falsifying 
or  ''harmonizing"  facts. 

Glancing  at  the  traditions  and  the  different  collec- 
tions duly  manipulated  and  finally  set  forth,  in  two 
contrasting  styles,  in  the  Kojiki,  or  Records,  and  the 
Nihongi,  or  Chronicles,  we  read  a  story  of  cosmic 
evolution.  Matter  precedes  mind.  As  humanity  and 
sex  are  evolved,  the  myths  show  themselves  to  be 
transparently  phallic.  Izanagi  and  Izanami  are 
creator  and  creatrix.  The  names  of  the  beings 
intermediate  between  mud  and  mind,  as  well  as  not 
a  few  in  the  later  fairy  tales,  seem  to  be  only  popular 
attempts  at  making  aboriginal  place-names  yield  a 
good  story  to  explain  their  oddity.  Their  notable 
three  offspring  are  Sky-Shine,  the  Moon  god,  and  the 
impetuous  Male,  or  sun,  moon,  and  sea.  The  ancestors 
of  the  lords  paramount  in  Nippon  come  from  Ama, 
or  the  High  Plain  of  Heaven,  but  many  of  the  Kami, 
that  is,  superior  gods  or  beings,  are  begotten  out  of 
muck  and  filth.  Throughout,  the  difference  between 
gods  and  men  seems  to  consist  chiefly  of  grades  in 
cleanliness.  The  heavenly  beings  wash  themselves 
often;    the  earthly  creatures  are  negligent  of  ablu- 


THE  IDZUMO  CYCLE  OF  LEGENDS  51 


tioiis.  In  a  word,  we  note  in  the  beginning  the  same 
difference  which  exists  between  the  modern  men  of 
baths  and  towels,  the  normal  Japanese  of  to-day,  and 
the  Ainu,  who  in  a  state  of  nature  wash  neither 
their  dishes  nor  their  bodies,  and  whose  persons  and 
habitations  are  redolent  afar.  The  stories  of  glisten- 
ing maidens  and  of  goddesses  whose  bodies  are  lus- 
trous, even  through  their  garments,  are  those  to 
whom  cleanliness  is  habitual. 

Perhaps  the  High  Plain  of  Heaven,  or  Ama,  was 
nothing  more  than  Yamato,  the  earth,  or  Ainu  land, 
and  the  earthly  deities  mostly  Ainu.  Susa-no-o,  the 
mit^chicvous  brother,  like  a  pure  Ainu,  wore  a  beard 
tliat  descended  to  his  bosom,  and  he  cried  and  bawled 
like  other  Ainu  described  in  the  annals.  To-day  his 
chief  temple  is  at  Idzumo,  which  Mr.  Okakura  de- 
clares is  the  shrine  of  the  descendants  of  the  Storm 
God,  ''who  were  sovereigns  of  Japan,  before  the 
descent  of  the  grandson  of  the  Sun-Goddess  on  the 
country."  Native  artists  represent  most  of  the  early 
gods  as  bearded  and  hairy-faced. 

The  shining  Lady  of  Ama  (Ama  Terasu,  Heaven- 
Illuminating  Deity,  or  Sun-Goddess)  and  the  Im- 
petuous Male  have  a  quarrel.  This  arises  out  of 
a  frontier  situation  and  the  reclaiming  of  land  from 
the  primeval  forest  conditions.  The  causes  seem  to 
be  that  she  has  three  rice  fields  which  are  level,  fertile, 
and  convenient  to  the  village;  while  those  of  the 
Impetuous  Male  are  full  of  stumps,  easily  overflowed 
by  the   river,  and  liable  to   drought.     The  jealous 


52  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

wretch,  like  the  true  Ainu  mirrored  in  the  histories, 
knocks  away  his  sister's  troughs  and  pipes,  breaks 
the  divisions,  and  makes  horses  He  down  on  her  fields. 
To  cap  the  climax  of  mischief,  he  skins  a  piebald  nag 
while  still  aUve,  and  making  a  hole  in  the  roof  throws 
the  reeking  hide  over  his  sister's  loom. 

Angry  and  sullen,  Sky-Shine  hides  herself  in  a 
cave.  Then  the  universe  is  in  darkness  and  all  ani- 
mated nature  is  in  misery.  How  to  get  her  out 
and  have  the  world  once  more  illuminated  is  the 
problem,  for  there  are  many  bad  elements  of  society 
ready  to  make  trouble  in  the  darkness.  A  great 
village  assembly,  or  in  the  myth-maker's  phrase, 
^^  eight  hundred  myriad  gods,"  meet  in  the  dry  river 
bed.  After  divination,  with  a  deer's  leg  bone  over  a 
fire  of  cherry  bark,  they  invent  tools,  make  bellows 
and  forges,  and  fashion  jewellery,  musical  instruments, 
and  a  mirror. 

In  a  word,  to  arouse  the  Ama  lady's  curiosity,  they 
get  up  an  industrial  exposition  of  inventions,  and  here 
we  have  the  picture  of  a  brainy  people  hard  at  work 
to  solve  a  problem.  They  bring  together  crowing 
cocks  and  blackbirds,  and  put  a  brawny  and  athletic 
fellow  in  front  of  the  rocky  door  to  pull  it  away  when 
set  ajar  from  within.  The  theatre  being  all  ready, 
the  performance  begins. 

Uzume,  the  ^'Heavenly  Alarming  Female,"  that  is, 
the  indiscreet  ballet  dancer  of  Ama,  fantastically 
arrayed,  began  to  dance  on  a  sounding  board  in  a 
way  to  please  the  ''bald-headed  row," shaking  mean- 


THE  IDZUMO  CYCLE  OF  LEGENDS  53 

while  her  sistrum  and  posy.  As  the  fun  grew  fast  and 
furious,  she  loosened  her  garments  beyond  the  I  ounds 
of  modesty.  The  song  which  she  sung  was  much  like 
oui^children's  counting-out  game — ''one,  two,  three, 
es  she"  —  for  in  it  one  can  hear  the  Japanese 
bers  from  one  to  ten.  Her  person  being  thus  ex- 
posed, the  Ama  men  laughed  as  hilariously  as  men  to- 
day do  in  a  music  hall  at  similar  immodesties,  or,  in 
myth  talk,  "the  Plain  of  High  Heaven  shook  and  the 
eight  hundred  myriad  deities  laughed  together." 

Thereupon,  consumed  with  curiosity  to  know  what 
was  going  on,  Sky-Shine,  now  the  cave  lady,  peeped 
forth.  At  once  the  athlete  seized  the  rock  door. 
Her  *  countenance  beamed,  and  all  the  world  was 
light-faced  again.  The  village  assembly,  or  council 
of  gods,  voted  first  to  torture,  then  to  banish,  the 
scape-goat  who  had  caused  the  mischief. 

this  primitive  ancestral  village  gathering,  we 
an  epitome  of  early  economic  history  and  the 
origin  of  arithmetic  given  in  the  myth-makers'  way. 
Perhaps,  also,  he  is  accounting  for  an  eclipse  of  the 
sun.  He  antedates  the  Chinese  notion  as  seen  in 
the  flag  of  China,  of  a  dragon  devouring  the  luminary. 
Hie  myth  details  also  the  origin  of  the  religious,  use- 
ful ,  and  decorative  arts  and  the  supremacy  of  an  able 
wc>man  in  Ama  land.  These  inventors  and  promoters 
of  hght  and  civilization  were  afterwards  rewarded 
by  being  sent  on  a  colonizing  and  civiHzing  mission 
to  the  earth.  That  is,  from  the  Plain  of  High  Heaven, 
they  were  to  go  down  to  Japan. 


f 


54  JAPANESE  NATION   IN  EVOLUTION 

Nevertheless,  in  that  cyclopsedia  of  myths,  the  com- 
posite Kojiki,  the  Lady  Sky-Shine  soon  retires  into 
the  background.  In  the  forefront  of  the  first 
Japanese  fairy-book,  we  have  the  Impetuous  Male, 
not  ruling  the  sea,  but  doing  many  wonderful  things 
on  earth,  some  of  them  useful  and  beneficent.  He 
slays  an  eight-headed  dragon,  after  making  it  drunk 
with  eight  tubs  of  sake.  Then  out  of  its  tail  he  digs 
a  mighty  sword,  which  was  duly  laid  up  in  a  shrine 
to  be  worshipped.  He  goes  to  the  land  of  Idzumo 
and  builds  a  palace.  He  talks  with  the  hare  and 
mouse  of  his  visit  to  Hades,  or  the  Land  of  Roots,  of 
his  love  affairs,  of  his  winning  a  trick  over  his  eighty 
(that  is,  many)  brothers,  of  how  he  made  up  his 
quarrels  with  his  sister,  and  of  his  amazing  number 
of  descendants,  most  of  whom  seem  to  have  Ainu 
names.  Perhaps  he  was  an  Ainu  himself.  His  be- 
havior was  much  like  that  of  a  savage  and  a  hunter 
that  hates  agriculture.  Making  allowance  for  primi- 
tive language  and  conditions,  the  fairy-tales  told  of 
Susa-no-o  remind  one  of  what  the  Indians  did  to 
our  great-grandfathers'  farms  and  sawmills. 

For  ages  in  early  Japan,  animal  dances,  represent- 
ing the  lion,  dragon,  monkey,  deer,  boar,  bear,  butter- 
fly, the  actions  of  Susa-no-o,  Uzume,  and  other  charac- 
ters in  the  Records  were  common.  The  Kagura  and 
matsuri  capers  still  hold  their  own  for  the  vulgar, 
while  in  stately  evolution  for  the  cultured  have 
proceeded  the  classic  No  opera  and  the  sacred  dances. 

When  the  lady  of  Ama  reappears  in  the  Records, 


I 


THE  IDZUMO  CYCLE  OF   LEGENDS  55 


ave  verily  a  new  country.  It  is  a  hop,  skip,  and 
jump  from  Idzumo  to  Satsuma  and  thence  to  Yamato, 
hundreds  of  miles  apart.  The  names  of  the  lady's 
companions  are  all  very  agricultural,  and  the  scenery 
is  that  of  a  rich  farming  region.  The  land  which  she 
chooses  to  give  her  august  child  is  the  Luxuriant  Reed 
Plain,  the  Land  of  Fresh  Rice  Ears  of  a  Thousand 
Autumns,  a  realm  of  reedy  mooi*s  and  fertile  rice- 
fields.  Looking  down  from  Ama  over  the  landscape 
—  probably  at  that  time  the  scene  of  the  quarrels, 
Iternate  raid  and  reprisal,  of  tillers  of  the  soil  and 

inu  hunters,  who  liked  farms  no  more  than  red 

ncHans  in  America  did  —  was  seen  to  be  in  uproar, 

the  Records  suggest,  heard  to  be  so  by  a  god 

us  for  his  big  ears.  Coming  again  to  the  High 
Plain  of  Ama,  this  listener  informs  the  ladv  who 


in  alt 
Tnaia 

Plain 


w  and  henceforth  we  have  a  gentleman's  name 
joined  to  that  of  the  Ama  lady,  making  a  firm  instead 
of  a  single  ruler.  The  High  August  Producing 
Wondrous   Deity,   who  was   probably  some  famous 

Ker,  is  her  fellow-work(^r.  The  two  summoned 
her  great  .democratic  assembly,  and  this  time  in 
the  centre  of  the  village,  or  in  mythic  language,  ''the 
eighty  myriads  of  gods  in  the  high  market-place  of 
Heaven."  Again  they  called  on  the  brainy  orator, 
some  Red  Jacket  or  Corn  Planter,  named  the  Thought 
Includer,  who  could  take  the  sense  of  the  majority 
and  express  it  clearly.  Him  they  ordered  to  cogitate 
n  by  which  the  earthly  deities  in  the  land,  that 


^^^tAam  by  wh 


56  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

is,  Idzumo,  could  be  subdued.  After  agreeing  upon 
what  messenger  or  deity  should  be  sent,  the  dis- 
appointing results  may  be  summed  up  as  follows :  — 

The  first,  whom  we  shall  call  Lord  Nozoo  (for  no 
one  can  explain  his  name)  curried  favor  with  the  mas- 
ter of  the  land  and  made  no  report  for  three  years. 

The  second  envoy,  a  young  prince  of  Ama,  proved 
to  be  even  worse.  He  was  so  naughty  that  the  record 
gives  him  no  title.  Well  equipped  with  ''Heavenly" 
bow  and  arrows  he  went  down,  only  to  fall  victim 
to  a  pretty  woman's  wiles  and  to  marry  her.  Her 
name  was  Princess  Under  Shine.  Like  many  of  the 
goddesses  of  this  story,  her  body  was  glistening  and 
beautiful,  even  from  beneath  her  garments,  which 
were  probably  not  numerous  or  very  opaque.  Per- 
haps, unlike  the  natives  of  that  time  and  the  Ainu  of 
to-day,  she  was  exceptional  in  the  fact  that  she  bathed. 

Moreover,  the  envoy  liked  the  country  and  people 
so  well  that  he  plotted  to  get  possession  of  the  land 
for  himself.  So  for  eight  years  the  Ama  folk  waited  in 
vain  for  tidings. 

Assembly  No.  3  voted  that  an  envoy,  a  pheasant, 
or  a  nameless  female,  should  be  sen^  to  find  out 
why  the  second  envoy  delayed.  Flying  down  from 
Ama,  the  Crying  Female  perched  (as  in  many  another 
fairy-tale)  on  a  katsura,  or  a  cassia  tree,  in  front  of 
the  prince's  gate  and  gave  him  the  message.  Then 
the  Ama  Spy  Woman,  not  Uking  the  bird's  cry, 
urged  the  Prince  that  it  be  shot  to  death.  The  arrow, 
after  transfixing  the   pheasant,   went   up   into  the 


^ip. 


THE  IDZUMO  CYCLE  OF  LEGENDS  57 

ven-country  only  to  fall  alongside  of  Sky-Shine 

her   companion.     He   at   once   shot   back   the 

oody  shaft  so  that  it  hit  the  Prince,  sleeping  on 

couch  below,  and  he  died.     Hence  the  proverb, 

ware  of  a  returning  arrow."     As  the  pheasant 

not  go  back,  another  proverb  speaks  of  ''The 

ant  as  sole  messenger." 

incess  Under  Shine  was  now  a  widow,  and  her 
wailings  were  heard  up  in  the  High  Plain  of  Heaven, 
hen  followed  a  scene  as  pitiful,  as  real,  as  instruc- 
f,  as  powerful  to  test  the  value  of  what  solenm 
savants  in  Europe,  lacking  all  the  sense  of  humor, 
have  taken  for  serious  history,  as  our  own  nursery 
story,  "Who  killed  Cock  Robin,"  with  all  its 
pretty  questions  and  answers.  The  Kojiki  gives  a 
full  list  of  the  birds  and  brutes,  as  well  as  human 
^gs,  who  served  at  the  funeral. 

t  of  Ama,  down  to  Princess  Under  Shine's  earthly 
"<)main  came  the  Prince's  father  and  the  wife  and  the 
^dren  he  had  left  behind  —  for  marriage  among 
pigods  was  usually  a  loose  and  miscellaneous  affair. 
They  got  ready  for  a  lively  wake,  which  should  pro- 
vide plenty  of  fun.  While  the  stone  dolmen  was  not 
yet  built,  a  mourning  house  was  provided  in  which 
Mcorpse  should  be  kept  until  buried.  It  was  so  in 
ffOld  Japan,  as  it  often  is  in  the  New,  that  a  man 
frequently  died  in  actual  fact  long  before  he  was 
officially  defunct.  In  the  old  days  a  corpse  was 
sometimes  kept  three  years,  in  order  to  maintain  a 
legal  fiction. 


^cloma 


58  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

As  chief  fellow-mourners,  the  river  wild  goose  that 
came  with  rice,  the  kingfisher  that  bought  fish,  and 
the  sparrow  that  pounded  and  cooked  the  rice,  were 
invited.  With  the  pheasant  as  chief  weeper  they 
wept,  wailed,  and  sang  for  eight  days. 

When  the  first  widow's  brother,  who  had  come  down 
from  Ama,  presented  himself  to  condole,  he  looked  so 
much  like  his  dead  brother-in-law,  that  the  sorrow- 
ing father  mistakenly  cried  out,  ''My  child  is  not 
dead,  No,"  and  clung  to  the  visitor's  hands  and  feet. 
Thereupon  the  angry  and  not  at  all  flattered  ''deity" 
answered,  "It  was  only  because  he  was  my  dear  friend 
that  I  came  to  condole.  Why  should  I  be  likened  to 
an  unclean  dead  person?"  Drawing  his  sword  of 
ten  hand-breadths  and  named  Leaf  Mower,  he  cut 
down  the  straw  shack  that  served  as  a  mourning 
house,  kicked  the  pieces  away,  and  strode  off.  There- 
upon his  widowed  sister  sang  a  song  in  praise  of  her 
brother's  shining  jewels,  with  which  the  heavenly 
dandy  was  richly  arrayed. 

The  Heavenly  Alarming  Female,  Uzume,  is  sent 
to  amuse  the  long-nosed  deity  Saruto  who  dwelt  at 
the  eight  cross-roads  of  Heaven,  and  to  overcome  him 
by  her  sheer  impudence  and  immodesty.  Of  course, 
she  was  successful  in  her  usual  way.  "So  this  was 
the  origin  of  the  Male  and  female  Lords  of  Sarume" 
is  the  genealogist's  note.  The  Sarume  men  and 
women  performed  the  Monkey  dances,  out  of  which 
and  others  later  grew  the  Kagura  village  comedy  and 
the  No,  or  classic  opera  rich  in  Buddhist  ideas. 


I 


THE  IDZUMO  CYCLE  OF  LEGENDS  59 


another  vote  and  formal  assembly  in  Ama  it 
was  resolved  to  send  down  the  Brave-Awful-Possess- 
ing-Male-Deity.  After  wonderful  achievements  on 
the  sea  and  in  Idzumo,  he  reascended  to  the  High 
Plain  and  reported  that  he  had  subdued  and  pacified 
the  Central  Land  of  Reed  Plains. 

Skill  as  well  as  valor  being  necessary  to  subdue  the 
land,  the  colony  or  expedition  from  Ama  was  organ- 
ized on  an  industrial  basis,  and  in  the  inventory  of 
what  went  down  to  the  earth  we  have  lists  of  tools  as 
well  as  of  men.  Though  draped  in  the  garb  of  a 
fairy  tale,  with  mountains  of  pompous  titles  and  acres 
of  honorifics,  these  mechanic  gods  seem  to  have  been 
real  pioneers  of  civilization. 

I  16  host  1('(1  by  Ninigi,  grandson  of    Sky-Shine, 
ended  from  Ama  to  alight,  not  in  Idzumo  but 
hiindreds   of   miles   away  —  so   erratic    is   legend  — 
irishima,  in  tlie  Satsuma  region,  a  mountain  in 
luga,    or    perliaps    on    Takachiho    (after    which    a 
ous  war-vessel,  one  of  Admiral  Togo's,  is  named), 
how  did  these  people  from  Ama  come?    Was 
y  boat  from  some  high  land  afar  and  over  the  sea 

Ire  earth  and  sky  meet?  In  any  event,  Kirishima 
ne  of  the  mountains  of  the  world  linked  to  the 
rersal  divine  legend, 
his  is  the  strong  point  in  the  Kojiki,  its  geography. 
Outside  of  the  High  Plain  of  Heaven,  the  landscapes 
and  coast-lines  are  recognizable.  The  breaks  in  the 
narrative  are  not  in  time,  but  in  space.  The  chronicler 
is    correct    and    even    villainously    accurate.     Wag 


nundi 

Hmg{ 

i 


60  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

not  his  scheme  all  made  of  a  piece,  in  a.d.  712  and 
again  in  720,  in  Yamato  ? 

There  is  talk  of  bows,  swords,  and  arrows,  and  of 
round  eyes  and  sharp  slit  eyes  —  which  suggests  the 
Ainu's  observation  as  to  differing  eye-sockets,  and 
perhaps  the  first  guides  of  the  newcomers  were  Ainu. 
On  their  arrival  upon  earth,  the  leader,  Ninigi,  noticed 
that  ''this  place  is  opposite  to  the  land  of  Korea,  a 
land  whereon  the  morning  sun  shines  straight,  a 
land  which  the  evening  sunlight  illumines."  So 
they  built  their  leader  a  house.  House  and  temple 
in  the  early  days  of  Shinto,  like  house  and  church  edi- 
fice in  primitive  Christian  times,  were  one  and  the 
same.  In  the  lofty  rhetoric  of  mythology,  they 
''made  stout  the  lowest  pillars  on  the  nethermost 
rock  bottom  and  made  high  the  cross-beams  to  the 
Plain  of  High  Heaven  and  dwelt  there." 

More  fairy  tales  follow.  Uzume,  whose  immodest 
capers  come  often  in  evidence,  got  all  the  fishes 
together,  "things  broad  of  fin  and  things  narrow  of 
fin,"  and  asked  them  "will  ye  respectfully  serve  the 
august  son  of  the  Heavenly  Deities?"  All  the  fishes 
answered  properly,  but  the  awabi,  or  beche-de-mer, 
said  nothing.  "Ah,  this  mouth  is  the  mouth  that 
gives  no  reply."  Thereupon  with  her  small  string 
sword,  she  slit  the  creature's  mouth.  So  at  the 
present  day  the  awabi  has  a  slit  mouth. 

Another  story  is  of  two  princesses,  the  one  named 
"Blossoming  Brilliantly  Like  the  Flowers  of  the 
Trees,"  and  the  other  "Long  as  the  Rocks."     The 


I 


THE  IDZUMO  CYCLE  OF  LEGENDS      61 

father  of  the  maidens,  Deity-Great-Mountain-Pos- 
sessor,  sent  both  his  daughters,  with  abundant 
dowry  for  each,  to  the  new  conqueror  Ninigi.  But, 
as  the  older  sister  was  ugly,  Ninigi  sent  her  back  to 
her  father,  who  was  ashamed,  and  explained  to  the 
prince  that  he  had  sent  both  his  daughters  in  order 
that  Lord  Ninigi  should  secure  both  beauty  and 
permanence.  Or  in  myth-talk,  that  the  august  off- 
spring of  the  gods  might,  "though  the  snow  fall  and 
the  wind  blow,  live  eternally,  immovable,  like  the 
enduring  rocks  and  also  live  flourishingly  like  unto 
the  flowering  of  the  trees.  To  insure  this  I  offered 
them  loth,  but  owing  to  thy  sending  one  back,  the 
offspring  of  the  gods  shall  be  as  frail  as  the  flowers  of 

IU(trees."  For  this  reason,  down  to  the  present 
Heven  the  Mikados  do  not  live  long. 
■  due  time,  the  newly  wedded  princess  became  a 
[Her.  Retiring  into  the  birth-hut,  she  set  it  on 
iW  There  were  born  in  the  flames  three  sons,  named 
Fire  Glow,  Fire  Flame,  and  Fire  Fade.  One  was  a 
fisherman,  another  a  hunter.  On  exchanging  their 
craft  and  tools,  the  hunter  had  no  luck  and  lost 
the  fish-hook.  To  get  the  original,  the  owner  went 
down  to  the  ''palace  built  like  fish  scales  of  the 
Dcity-Ocean-Possessor"  where  the  cassia  tree  grows. 
Winning  the  Sea-King's  Daughter  to  wife,  he  stayed 
three  years.  On  telling  his  father-in-law  the  story 
of  the  lost  fish-hook,  all  the  fish  were  summoned, 
but  ''only  the  Red  Woman  had  a  sore  mouth." 
The  fish-hook  was  discovered  in  the  tai,  or  red  sea- 


62  JAPANESE   NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

bream's  mouth.  When  duly  washed,  the  hook  was 
given  back  to  the  owner.  The  Sea-King  advised  the 
Prince  how  to  act  toward  his  brother,  and  presented 
to  him  also  the  two  jewels  of  the  Ebbing  and  the 
Flowing  Tide.  Then  summoning  all  the  sea-monsters, 
the  King  of  the  Underworld  invited  one  of  them  to 
escort  their  guest,  and  on  its  back  the  Prince  rode 
home.  The  Princess  asked  him  to  make  a  birth-hut 
on  the  shore  and  meet  her  there  when  she  would  come 
to  earth. 

In  the  '^duel  of  wits"  between  the  brothers,  as 
foretold,  the  jewels  were  found  to  work  wonders, 
making  flood  or  dry  land,  and  causing  to  drown  or  to 
save  when  the  savage  elder  brother.  Fire  Glow,  first 
attacked  and  then  submitted  to  Fire  Fade.  Some 
one  sees  in  this  a  flood  myth  w^orthy  of  scrutiny. 
The  Ainu  in  their  folklore  have  a  deluge. 

A  child  was  born  of  the  Sea-King's  Daughter  to 
Prince  Fire  Fade  in  the  birth-hut  roofed  with  cormo- 
rant feathers.  After  delivery,  the  mother  turned  into 
a  dragon  and  slipped  back  into  the  ocean.  There 
are  those  who  see  in  this  oceanic  myth  a  Malay, 
others  a  Chinese,  origin.     Who  shall  decide? 

Then  in  the  palace  at  Takachiho,  Prince  Fire  Fade 
lived  five  hundred  and  eighty  years. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   YAMATO    PEOPLE   AND    MIKADOISM 

FAVING,  in  the  Kojiki,  reached  something  like  a 
late  or  time  mark,  at  the  birth  of  the  dragon-born 


child  and  his  residence  for  nearly  six  centuries  in  one 
place,  we  encounter  also  what  looks  like  history. 
The  dragon  mother's  son  (whose  name  Jimmu  was 
officially  given  him  in  the  days  of  writing,  fourteen 
hundred  years  afterwards)  married  his  aunt,  Jewel- 
Good-Princess.  In  the  prehistoric  period,  marriage 
meant  cohabitation  and  nothing  more.  A  wedding 
was  simply  the  pul)lic  acknowledgment  of  what 
already  secretly  existed.  Men  married  their  sisters 
and  aunts,  or  any  of  their  female  relatives,  for  the 
institution  of  the  family  was  not  known  and  true 
ancestor-worship  was  as  yet  unheard  of. 

Of  the  four  children  born  of  Jimmu  and  his  aunt  — 
all  named  after  rice  or  food  —  two  went  to  sea,  and 
the  two  others  moved  eastward.  These  latter  met 
the  natives,  and  being  entertained  stayed  in  one  place 
one  year,  in  another  seven,  and  in  another  eight 
years.  Taking  ship  and  securing  a  pilot,  who  came 
to  them  riding  on  the  carapace  of  a  tortoise,  and 

03 


64  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

who  knew  the  sea-path,  they  came  to  Naniwa,  or 
Osaka,  whence  the  name  of  Admiral  Togo's  cruiser. 
The  river-mouth  has  for  ages  been  famous  for  its 
'' flowery"  or  treacherous  waves  breaking  over  the 
bar.  Here,  on  April  12,  1867,  Rear-Admiral  Henry 
H.  Bell,  U.S.N. ,  was  drowned.  Here,  to-day,  millions 
of  dollars  are  being  spent  to  make  Hfe  and  property 
safe. 

After  various  other  adventures,  in  which  figure 
various  earthly  deities,  savages,  swords,  gods  with 
bushy  tails,  bears,  golden  kites  (birds),  crows  eight 
feet  long,  "a,  person  pushing  the  clifTs  apart,"  earth 
spiders  (or  earth  hiders),  and  cave-dwellers,  the  con- 
queror passed  the  river  Yoshino  (after  which  the 
modern  steel  warship  is  named).  Having  thus 
subdued  the  savage  people  and  extirpated  the  unsub- 
missive folk,  he  dwelt  at  the  palace  on  the  Evergreen 
Oak  Plain  (Kashiwabara),  near  Unebi  (a  hill  in  Ya- 
mato),  and  ruled  the  land.  Jimmu  married  also  a 
Satsuma  princess.  After  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  years  of  Hfe,  he  was  buried  in  a  dolmen  on 
Mount  Unebi. 

In  the  official  language,  penned  fourteen  hundred 
years  later,  Jimmu  ''ascended  the  throne"  and 
founded  the  Japanese  Empire  and  the  dynasty  of 
Mikados,  described  in  1889  as  ''unbroken  from  ages 
eternal."  His  alleged  burial-place  is  now  decorated 
in  imposing  but  in  most  inharmonious  and  anach- 
ronistic modern  style,  and  here  offerings  are  made 
annually  according  to  the  Shinto  ritual. 


THE  YAMATO  PEOPLE  AND  MIKADOISM        65 

Following  Jimmu  in  the  list  are  sixteen  Mikados. 
The  average  age  of  the  first  seventeen  in  ''the  divine 
chain"  is  ninety-six,  according  to  the  Kojiki,  or  over 
one  hundred  years,  if  we  accept  the  elastic  time- 
measures  of  the  Chronicles. 

The  deposed  ruler  of  Idzumo,  known  as  the  Great 
Deity  of  Miwa,  is  still  in  evidence ;  but  henceforth  the 
centre  of  myth  and  activity  is  Yamato,  a  new  place 
in  the  story.  Thereafter  the  pages  of  the  Records 
SLVv,  stuffed  with  genealogies,  made  over  a  thou.sand 
years  later,  when  clannism  was  the  theory,  or  fiction, 
of  government,  and  these  fill  up  the  blank  of  five 
hundred  years.  In  the  eighth  century,  ''everybody 
that  was  anybody  "  wanted  to  connect  his  pedigree 
with  that  of  the  "gods." 

ious  strings  of  narratives  are  beaded  with  epi- 
that  delight  children,  but  as  there  was  no 
censor  of  morals  in  ])rimitive  days,  the  mosaic  of 
legend  is  cemented  together  with  the  most  indecent 
stories,  which  reflect  accurately  the  primitive  mind, 
which,  ethically,  was  on  an  Ainu  level.  Morals  had 
ed  from  the  horde,  but  not  from  the  group, 
r  the  time  of  the  Christian  era,  perhaps,  appears 
(B.C.  97-30).  Lively  incidents  show  that  the 
mo  region  and  rulers  were  thoroughly  pacified, 
that  the  quarrels  within  the  Imperial  clan  were  many, 
that  morals  were  excessively  rudimentary,  and  that 
tlie  Mikado  was  thoroughly  unmoral,  having  no  care 
or  oversight  of  the  ethics  of  his  people,  and  that  the 
importation  of  the  orange  from  "the  Eternal  Land" 


66  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

—  the  Riu  Kiu  Islands,  or  Korea  — was  a  highly 
appreciated  event. 

It  is  now  time  to  look  at  other  historical  evidences 
besides  those  of  late  writings.  We  therefore  turn 
from  the  Records  and  Chronicles  to  the  landscape  of 
Japan,  which  in  the  old  classic  localities  is  rich  in 
monuments  and  remains  of  manual  industry.  In 
the  age  before  writing,  potters,  metal-workers,  weav- 
ers, and  decorators  were  active  in  furnishing  the 
homes  of  the  dead.  These  show,  as  against  the 
contents  of  the  shell-heaps  of  the  white  Aryan  Ainu, 
a  civiUzation  much  more  highly  advanced.  They 
reveal  the  divine  touch  of  art  and  reflect  the  love 
of  beauty  inherent  in  the  islanders,  even  before  the 
dawn  of  letters. 

The  soul  of  Nippon  is  in  art.  Whatever  be  the 
origin  of  the  aesthetic  instincts  of  the  Yamato  race, 
these  early  men  proved  themselves  as  gentle  in  the 
arts  of  peace  as  they  were  fierce  in  war.  The  exquisite 
finish  given  to  their  industrial  and  decorative  art, 
so  notable  in  our  modern  days,  is  equally  characteris- 
tic of  those  tumuli  and  dolmens,  whose  full  story  is 
lost  in  ages  unwritten.  Tenderness,  romanticism, 
appreciation  of  the  lovely  in  nature,  love  of  bodily 
purity,  characterize  the  men  of  that  dolmen  age,  the 
boundaries  of  which  are  roughly  from  400  B.C.  to 
700  A.D.  Ritual  cleanliness  was  their  hoHness,  de- 
filement their  sin.  The  artistic  mind  and  touch  of 
the  workmen,  who  clothed  their  chief  in  life  and 
furnished  his  chamber  of  glory  in  death,  are  hinted 


THE  YAMATO  PEOPLE  AND  MIKADOISM       67 


Ilk  the  shreds  and  fragments  of  textiles  and  em- 
roidery,  and  the  tasteful  arrangement  of  the  perish- 
able fabrics.  On  the  equipment,  implements,  and 
utensils  of  stone,  metal,  wood,  and  clay  —  all  im- 
perishable materials  —  the  stamp  of  the  beauty-lov- 
ing lapidary  and  artist  is  manifest.  In  all,  even  thus 
early,  we  discern  the  canons  of  moderation  and  the 
horror  of  the  too  much,  which  in  the  Japanese  genius 
is  akin  to  that  of  the  Greek.  Between  the  overloading 
of  decorative  art  in  India  and  the  monotonous  gran- 
deur of  China,  there  is  in  unlettered  but  art-loving 
Nippon  the  same  difference  as  that  shadowed  forth 
in  their  sword  idea.  The  Island  Country  of  the 
Slender  Sword  had  already  a  genius  differentiated 
from  that  in  any  civilization  on  the  continent.  To 
^the  closer  examination  of  the  early  homes  of  the 
^■■fe  dead  in  the  fondly  named  Country  Between 
Heaven  and  Earth,  we  shall  now  proceed. 

early  ages  of  humanity,  the  dead  are  more  than 
iving,  and  their  ideas  rule.  The  noblest  art  and 
architecture  are  devoted  to  glorify  those  who  rule 
from  their  dust.  The  mass  of  the  Japanese  people 
is  still  swayed,  not  by  science,  but  by  the  cemetery. 
Even  among  the  educated,  the  "spirits  of  ancestors" 
are  more  powerful  in  their  minds  than  the  dimly 
apprehended  Creator.  In  early  ages  the  hold  of  the 
dead  on  the  living  was  far  stronger. 

e  first  mortuary  structures  reared  over  the  corpses 

ippon's   great   men   were   simple   mounds,   but 

b(;ginning  probably  about  200  B.C.  a  highly  specialized 


it- 


68  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

form  of  stone  chamber  came  into  fashion.  These  new 
structures  consisted  usually  of  two  tumuli,  one 
round,  the  other  triangular.  Into  that  made  in  the 
form  of  a  circle,  the  apex  of  the  triangle  enters  and 
the  two  merge  into  one  structure.  Many  of  them 
hold  well-shaped  stone  or  terra-cotta  coffins. 

Of  the  dolmens  there  are  four  types,  classified 
according  to  their  forms  of  galleries  and  chambers. 
Some  of  these  are  noble  specimens  of  megalithic 
masonry.  I  have  seen  only  a  few,  but  Mr.  Gowland, 
who  has  contributed  papers  to  the  Japan  Society  of 
London,  examined  406,  and  measured  or  sketched 
140  of  these  dolmens,  and  Mr.  Satow  has  written  of 
them  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of 
Japan.  They  are  photographed  in  Mr.  Romyn 
Hitchcock's  pamphlet  on  the  '^Ancient  Burial  Mounds 
of  Japan."  Mr.  Okakura,  in  his  book  of  revelation, 
entitled  '^Ideals  of  the  East,"  points  out  the  relation 
of  the  dolmens  to  the  original  stupa  of  India,  sug- 
gestive as  the  prototype  of  the  lingam.  He  considers 
that  the  influence  of  the  Continental  art  of  the  Han 
period  in  China,  202  B.C.  to  220  a.d.,  is  very  pro- 
nounced and  discernible  in  early  Japan.  Syn- 
chronous with  these  rock  chambers,  which  were 
built  usually  of  unhewn  stone,  were  the  artificial 
caves  cut  in  the  hillsides  for  the  same  purpose. 

The  immigrants  who  built  the  dolmens  had  evi- 
dently passed  out  of  the  stone  age  before  leav- 
ing their  ancestral  seats.  We  can  hardly  as  yet  say 
there  was  a  distinct  bronze  age  in  Japan.     Only  in 


■ 


THE  YAMATO   PEOPLE  AND  MIKADOISM        69 


the  southwest  are  bronze  swords,  moulds  for  casting, 
and  other  bronze  rehcs  found. 

Large  numbers  of  the  prehistoric  mounds  have 
long  ago  been  levelled  by  the  cultivator.  Even 
through  some  of  the  sites  of  alleged  Imperial  tombs, 
roads  have  been  cut,  or  on  them  cabbages  are  raised, 
and  houses  and  villages  built.  When  a  dolmen  is 
found,  it  is  usually  the  lone  survivor  of  a  score  or 
more  that  previously  existed.  The  general  fate  and 
condition  of  these  archaic  monuments  remind  one 
of  the  Iroquois  Indian  mounds  in  the  lake  region  of 
Central  New  York,  or  of  the  hunehedden  of  Drenthe, 
or  the  terpen  of  Friesland  which  I  have  many  times 
visited,  the  last  time  in  190G.  All  of  these  have 
yielded  such  rich  harvests  of  the  relics  of  several 
ages,  races,  and  conditions  of  culture.  Of  the  terpen, 
on(;e  supposed  to  number  but  a  hundred  or  so,  over 
six  hundred  have  been  located  in  Friesland  by  the 
man  of  science  or  the  tax-collector.  Indian  mounds, 
dolmen,  and  terpen  throw  strong  light  on  early  life 
and  origins  of  civilization,  when  conditions  were  much 
the  same. 

Like  the  moraines  that  tell  of  glaciers  that  have 
long  disappeared,  the  dolmens  in  Nippon  show  as  on 
a  map  the  march  of  the  Yamato  men  and  culture  and 
the  course  of  conquest,  especially  against  the  Ainu 
noilhward.  While  the  wild  forest  and  mountain  tracts 
wej'e  held  by  the  Aryan  aborigines,  the  open  and  lower 
lands,  more  suitable  for  agriculture,  were  won  by  the 
settlers  who  tilled  the  earth.    The  distribution  of 


70  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

the  mounds  and  dolmens  seems  to  show  also  that 
various  independent  clans  of  the  same  race,  having 
like  weapons,  religion,  and  customs,  lived  on  the 
islands,  but  were  separated  from  each  other  by  wide 
stretches  of  country  in  which  no  dolmens  exist. 
Until  the  eighth  century,  Hondo,  the  main  island, 
was  only  partly  occupied  and  the  country  sparsely 
inhabited. 

The  dolmens  are  usually  found  in  groups  of  from 
twenty  to  eighty.  The  usual  situation  is  on  the 
crest  or  slope  of  the  lower  hills  or  uplands,  from  which 
wide  views  may  be  obtained.  Most  of  them,  except 
in  lyo,  in  the  Four-Country  Island  of  Shikoku,  have 
a  southern  aspect.  '^Bury  me  in  the  sunlight" 
may  have  been  an  early  and  frequent  request. 

These  rude,  unhewn  stones  tell  of  the  age  before 
writing.  No  inscriptions,  and  no  time  mark,  except 
in  relics  found,  exist,  for  clocks,  almanacs,  and  letters 
were  not  yet.  They  also  enlighten  us  as  to  the  migra- 
tory nature  of  the  Court  and  the  ease  and  frequency 
of  the  Imperial  Capital's  removal.  Some  sixty  of 
these  seats  of  government  are  known. 

The  copious  records  in  the  Chronicles  tell  of  the  first 
building  and  use  of  those  misasagi,  or  Imperial  tombs, 
in  the  Yamato  region,  which  were  within  the  ken  of 
Court  historiographers,  but  say  nothing  of  those  in 
other  parts  of  Japan,  which  were  outside  the  orthodox 
political  scope  and  animus  of  official  history.  For  a 
full  and  truthful  summary  of  all  the  facts,  these 
eighth-century   writings   are   no   more   trustworthy 


THE  YAMATO   PEOPLE  AND   MIKADOISM        71 


than  are  those  of  later  cTate.  Even  modern  Japanese 
documents  ignore  nmch  of  the  details  of  truth  most 
desired  by  outsiders.  Let  us  see  further  as  to  what 
these  stone  dolmens  tell. 

Oversight,  even  of  the  mounds  recognized  as  "  Im- 
perial," has  been  intermittent,  —  centuries  of  care 
alternating  with  centuries  of  neglect.  During  the 
long  civil  wars  of  the  middle  ages,  many  were  lost 
by  being  given  to  the  plough.  Only  in  the  Meiji 
has  any  serious  attention,  practical,  political, 
hieological,  been  given  to  the  misasagi.  Few- 
arc;  now  recognized  as  Imperial,  and  perhaps  only 
th(;  traditions  concerning  the  larger  ones  are  fairly 
trustworthy. 

These  grand  monuments,  antedating  writing,  spell- 
ing, Chinese  influence,  State,  Church,  or  political 
pia,  tell  another  interesting  story.  They  reveal 
riety  of  elements  in  tlie  Japanese  ethnic  com- 
posHe,  and  the  many  sovereignties  that  existed  before 
conquest  made  e  phnihus  umim.  Large  mounds, 
of  a  form  equally  imposing  with  those  of  Yamato, 
arc!  found  in  the  districts  very  far  away  from  those 
of  the  recognized  emperors.  In  a  word,  in  the  ffon 
of  dolmens  there  were  chiefs  who  were  regarded  as 
equals  of  the  head  of  the  central  ruling  family  in 
Yamato.  Long  settlement  of  men  in  Kiushiu,  at 
least  as  mound-builders,  preceded  the  age  of  mega- 
litliic  architecture. 

Sometimes  the  erection  of  these  mausoleums  was 
begun  even  before  the  decease  of  the  expected  occu- 


posit  e, 


72  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

pant.  As  with  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  there  was 
rivalry  also,  with  riots,  destruction,  bloodshed,  and 
effacement  by  the  victorious  party  of  the  competing 
builder.  A  notable  example  was  that  of  Soga,  slain 
A.D.  645,  the  head  of  the  clan  that  ruled  Nippon  and 
overawed  the  Mikado.  He  rode  into  power  on  the 
wave  of  the  incoming  Aryan  religion.  He  called 
himself  the  Yemshi  (Ainu)  Soga,  and  championed  the 
cause  of  the  Ainu  or  Eastlanders.  In  reading  of  other 
similar  episodes  of  proud  rivals,  one  is  reminded  of  the 
art-besotted  ecclesiastics  in  Browning's  poem,  ''The 
Bishop  Orders  His  Tomb  at  St.  Praxed's  Church." 

All  the  dolmens,  from  the  rudest  to  the  grandest, 
belong  in  the  iron  age,  which  came  long  past  the  era 
of  stone  and  bronze.  In  them  we  find  the  wants  of 
the  warrior  in  the  future  world  well  supplied.  Out 
of  the  carefully  sifted  ''knee-deep  dust  that  once 
was  man,"  have  been  picked  swords,  spears,  helmets, 
armor,  arrow-heads,  saddle  pommels,  metal  horse- 
trappings,  bits,  buckles,  rings,  stirrup  irons,  "bugle" 
beads  and  crescent-shaped  jewels,  of  crystal,  soap- 
stone,  steatite,  jasper,  agate,  chalcedony,  chryso- 
phrasus,  nephrite  or  jade,  —  in  short,  of  as  many 
materials  in  mineral  as  cover  the  walls  of  the  New 
Jerusalem.  Silver  and  copper-gilt  metal-work,  orna- 
mented with  punch  and  graven  work,  abound  — 
prophecy  of  Japan's  triumphs  of  art  that  now  de- 
light the  world.  One  who  studies  carefully  the  speci- 
mens of  iron  weapons  and  metallic  decoration  found 
in  these  dolmens  need  not  wonder  that,  after  a  mil- 


r 


THE  YAMATO   PEOPLE  AND  MIKADOISM        73 


lennium  and  a  half  of  skill  in  working  metals,  the 
Japanese  are  able  to  build  and  equip  battleships. 

the  pottery,  usually  gray  and  wrought  on  a  wheel, 
[ecorated  with  etched  markings.  In  every  case 
the  dolmen  pottery  and  objects  differ  from  those 
found  in  the  shell-heaps  from  one  end  of  the  Japanese 
d  to  the  other. 

e  unity  of  style,  structure,  and  relics  suggest  that 
the  fusion  of  races  (Malay  and  Semitic  ?)  had  been  com- 
pleted, and  that  one  culture  dominated  the  situation. 
Most  striking  of  all  the  dolmen  relics  are  the  terra- 
cotta figures  of  human  shape  and  also  the  clay  effigies 
of  horses,  some  few  of  which  are  now  found  in  the 
Tokio  and  British  museums.  The  story  of  these  clay 
substitutes  for  the  human  sacrifices,  which  continued 
as  late  as  a.d.  247,  and  the  institution  of  the  potters' 
iJd  in  honor  of  the  first  makers  of  them,  as  related 
e  Chronicles,  has  been  told  in  ''The  Mikado's 
mpire,"  p.  92.  The  Imperial  order  was  to  "  Summon 
up  from  the  land  of  Idzumo  a  hundred  men  of  the 
clay-workers'  Be,"  or  guild.  The  haniwa,  or  clay 
images,  took  the  place  of  groaning  and  starving  human 
beings  buried  to  their  necks  in  the  earth,  and  liable 
to  be  eaten  alive  by  birds  and  beasts  of  prey.  History 
and  archcTology  here  join  hands  in  testimony  of 
interesting  stages  of  culture,  and  of  a  great  reform 
in_the  interest  of  humanity. 

at  is  most  striking  about  these  figurines  is  the 

r  absence  of  ''Mongolian"  features.     They  seem 

to   be  Aryan   or  Semitic.     From   those   lips,   what 


^^Emni 


111  biie 

^^utfer 


m. 


74  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

speech  issued  ?  An  answer  to  this  question  negatives 
the  idea  of  an  exclusive  MongoUan  origin  of  the 
people  now  called  the  Japanese. 

Judged  alone  by  their  most  ancient  language  roots, 
the  Yamato  people  belong  to  the  Semitic  race.  The 
characteristic  feature  of  the  tongue  spoken  from 
Ethiopia  to  Phoenicia  and  from  Assyria  to  the  Medi- 
terranean is  the  triliteral  verb.  This  seems  to  be 
the  marked  trait  of  the  stem-words  spoken  in  pre- 
Mongolian  Japan.  In  the  Japan  Evangelist,  Tokio, 
October,  1906,  Dr.  David  Thompson  has  wrought 
out  this  contention  in  scholarly  fashion. 

Any  one  analytically  familiar  with  the  vocabulary 
of  modern  Japan  recognizes  at  once  how  amazingly 
rich  it  is  in  words  borrowed  from  the  Chinese,  many 
of  them  made  into  verbs  by  the  addition  of  sum  — 
to  do  or  make.  These  Chinese  words  far  outnumber, 
possibly  twice  or  thrice,  all  the  words  in  the  primitive 
vocabulary.  The  elements  of  pure  old  Japanese  are 
excessively  few.  Yet  these  elements  easily  dominate 
the  mighty  mass  of  Chinese  vocables.  The  ''hooks 
and  eyes"  of  speech,  the  particles  controUing  the 
syntax,  are  native.  The  whole  national  story  is 
mirrored  in  Japan's  language.  Even  in  the  latest 
year  of  the  world's  history,  Yamato  Damashii  still 
reigns,  doubly  showing  ''the  unassailable  original 
destiny."  Despite  the  Mongohan  flood,  "the  rock  of 
race-pride  and  organic  union  has  stood  firm  through- 
out the  ages."  Was  this  original  rock  Aramaic? 
Can  the  early  Japanese  claim  kindred  with  Assyria? 


CHAPTER  V 


YAMATO    DAMASHII 


AMATO  Damashii"  (the  spirit  of  unconquerable 
Japan)  is  as  often  on  Japanese  lips  as  are  similar  words 
of  boasting,  detorniination,  or  inspiration  in  British 
merican  mouths.     Set  in  the  framework  of  their 

historic  associations,  ''The  Spirit  of  76,"  "Eng- 
isn  fair  play,"  "  Ncderlandsch  bloed,"  suggest  ade- 
(juate  analogy.  National  hymns  or  music,  historic 
mottoes,  war-cries,  or  single  words  thus  focus  memories 
and  inheritances  to  the  stirring  of  emotions  and  as 
havers  to  action,  and  so  help  us  to  enter  into  the  mind 
anji  heart  of  the  Japanese  when  he  utters  these  words. 

rst    spoken,    Yamato    Damashii    denoted   the 

age,  literature,  wit,  or  ways  of  Yamato  as  opposed 
tp^hose  foreign  or  imported  from  China,  but  this  use 

.6  words  has  long  been  obsolete. 

e  second  meaning  refers  to  the  spirit  and  temper 
of  (highly  idealized)  Yamato  ancestors.  Their  keen 
swords  conquered  the  land.  In  simple  life  and  in 
lofty  purpose,  they  handed  down  their  inheritances 
from  "  the  gods."  In  this  holy  land  of  the  archipelago, 
most  of  the  early  capitals  had  their  site. 

75 


U/ilLt   1X< 

^^5^U{ 

to  th( 

■t: 


76  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Yet  ''above  all  nations  is  humanity."  Yamato, 
like  Yamashiro,  is  an  Ainu  aboriginal  name,  and  the 
fluctuating  Chinese  characters  with  which  it  is  written 
before  a.d.  737  were  changed  after  that  date.  In 
time  it  was  known  in  China  and  is  mentioned  by  the 
later  Han  historians  (a.d.  25-220).  The  pronunciation 
of  the  Chinese  character  is  Wa-shu.  During  Ashikaga 
days  (1338-1573)  Yamato  was  the  fief  of  the  Hata- 
keyama  family,  and  under  the  Tokugawas  (1604-1868) 
seven  daimios  occupied  its  seven  divisions.  Jimmu 
coming  there  drove  out  or  enslaved  the  Ainu,  and 
made  it  his  seat  of  rule.  The  Chronicles  tell  us  how  it 
got  its  name  on  the  (shamefully  accurate)  date,  "31st 
year.  Summer,  fourth  month  first  day  (630  B.C.)." 
The  Imperial  Palanquin  (impersonal  for  Emperor) 
made  a  circuit  in  the  course  of  which  the  Emperor 
ascended  the  hill  Waki  Kamu  no  Hatsuma.  Here, 
having  viewed  the  land  on  all  sides,  he  said :  "  Oh ! 
what  a  beautiful  country  we  have  become  possessed 
of !  Though  a  blessed  land  of  inner  tree  fibre  [paper 
mulberry  for  weaving  cloth  out  of],  yet  it  resembles 
a  dragon-fly  licking  its  hinder  parts.  From  this 
it  first  received  the  name  Akitsu-Shima "  (Island 
of  the  Dragon-fly). 

The  modern  word  akitsu  means  a  dragon-fly,  and 
Japan  is  by  excellence  the  land  of  these  tiny  dragons 
of  the  air,  which  Occidental  superstition  calls  "  devil's 
darning-needles  "  or  "  mosquito  hawks."  In  manifold 
forms  of  symbolism,  art,  in  poetry,  rhetoric,  and 
allusion,  Japan  is  The  Island  of  the  Dragon-fly.     Yet 


YAMATO  DAMASHir  77 

original  meaning  of  Akitsushima  is  ''the  region 
of  harvests,"  and  has  nothing  to  do  with  akitsu,  or 
tombo,^  the  dragon-fly.  The  insect  is  often  seen  with 
its  tail  touching  its  mouth  in  the  form  of  a  circle, 
and  the  land  of  Yamato  is  surrounded  by  a  ring  of 
mountains.  From  a  very  little  area  of  land  and  a 
tiny  rill  of  legend  have  grown  a  world  of  associations 
and  a  flood  of  traditions.  A  majority  of  the  modern 
steel  battleships  have  received  their  inspiring  names 
from  the  mountains,  rivers,  places,  or  landmarks  in 
this  ancestral  region.  The  j)otencies  in  the  word 
Yamato  and  the  emotions  evoked  by  mention  of  its 
e  are  outside  of  the  world  of  science  and  belong 
he  domain  of  sentiment.  The  Japanese  are  a 
very  sentimental  people,  as  emotional  as  they  are 
practical.  Old  names  are  among  the  deepe.«?t  things 
in  the  Japanese  heart.  Hence  it  is  fitting  that  we 
should  glance  at  the  Yamato  language  and  music, 
the  one  the  photograph  of  the  early  mind  of  Japan, 
and   the   other   the   vehicle   of   her   richest    human 

g- 

hatever  be  the  still  uril)r()k('n  secret  of  race- 
origin,  the  old  language  of  Nippon  has  a  plastic  power 
and  richness  of  particles  far  beyond  the  Chinese; 
though,  despite  all  that  patriotism  may  boast,  it  has 
not  one-tenth  the  power  of  expressing  human  thought 
and  feeling  possessed  by  the  Aryan  and  Semitic 
t(mgues.  ''All  concords  dependent  upon  gender, 
number,  person,  and  case  are  wholly  absent."  In  this 
respect,  it  is  even  below  the  potency  of  Ainu  speech. 


■t^ 


78  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Nevertheless,  even  as  in  music,  the  Japanese, 
though  with  limited  diatonic  scale,  excel  in  tonality, 
so  their  poetry  has  a  peculiar  charm  depending  not 
on  full  or  definite  statement,  but  on  its  suggestive- 
ness.  In  this  respect  it  probably  excels  all  poetry 
in  the  world.  Furthermore,  form  and  decoration 
mean  more  to  the  lover  of  Japanese  poetry  than  does 
the  context.  Intensely  rich  in  symbolism  and  able 
to  move  to  the  depths  those  familiar  with  the  text, 
it  is  often  a  sealed  book  to  the  dull-witted  alien,  even 
when  translated  by  a  master  spirit  or  a  poet.  Afflu- 
ent in  vowels  it  makes  rich  music  to  the  ear,  especially 
when  on  the  thought  or  allusion  floats  the  perfume 
of  a  thousand  years  of  happy  association.  Almost 
the  sole  repository  of  the  primitive  tongue  is  the 
native  poetry,  the  stream  of  which,  flowing  out  from 
the  Ainu  age,  is  probably  two  thousand  years  old. 

Wonderfully  preserved  is  the  pristine  purity  of  old 
Yamato  speech.  Like  the  crystal,  which  in  forma- 
tion resists  and  expels  foreign  substances,  it  refuses 
adulteration.  There  is  no  admixture  of  Chinese 
vocables,  and  the  grammar  has  repelled  all  intrusions 
of  foreign  principles.  The  soul  of  Japan  as  expressed 
in  her  Yamato  kotoha,  or  words,  is  unspotted. 

The  three  great  monuments  of  the  primitive  lan- 
guage are  the  Kojiki,  or  Records,  the  Manyoshiu  (thou- 
sand leaves),  or  poetry  on  the  ancient  model,  and  the 
Monogatari,  or  mediaeval  romances,  diaries,  and  works 
on  philology,  and  grammar.  These  last  admit  a  few 
Chinese  words,  but  maintain  the  ancient  grammar. 


I 


YAMATO   DAMASHII 


79 


e  ancient  poems  have  been  literally  translated 
by  Mr.  F.  V.  Dickins  and  freely  into  English  verse 
by  Basil  Hall  Chamberlain;  and  the  Hiyaku  Nin 
Isshiu  (single  songs  from  a  hundred  poets)  by  Mr. 
Dickins  and  Rev.  Clay  McCauley.  The  range 
deas  is  not  great  in  the  poems,  but  as  a  mirror  of 
the  ancient  life  they  are  invaluable. 

■le     Monogatari     (thing-telling,    i.e.    romances), 
wmch  were  written  mostly  by  women,  have  for  clever- 
ness never  been  equalled,  certainly  not  excelled,  in 
Japan.     They    all    antedate    the    twelfth    century. 
As  everywhere  and  in  all  ages,  the  normal  woman 
in  Japan   is  a  true   conservative.     On    her   tongue 
lives  the  old  sweet  language.     The  splendid  Taketori, 
Ise,  Genji,  Utsubo,  and  other   Monogatari  are   un- 
matched.      In     his     preface     to     ''  Primitive     and 
Mediaeval  Texts  of  Japan,"  Mr.  F.  V.  Dickins  insists 
the  modern   literature  of  Japan  as  such   is 
rly  worthless.     Not  a  line  of  power  or  beauty,  it  is 
s(;arcely  too  much  to  say,  has  been  jjenned  since  the 
last  Monogatari  was  written.     Quite  other  is  the  case 
with    old   Japanese    within    its    own    limits.     Those 
^^htnits  are  set  by  its  comparatively  scanty  vocabulary." 
^H|b  italics  are  ours. 

^^■■ongolianism  swamped  Japanese  originality  and 

^^HHklyzed    thought    at    its    beginning.     Nor    is    the 

^^pifning   in   vain   against   the   ''rapidly   progressing 

sinicization  of  the  Japanese  [or  un-Mongolian]  tongue. 

It  is  becoming  more  and  more  incapable  of  rendering, 

so  as  to  be  understood  fully  by  a  Japanese  not  already 


80  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

acquainted  with  some  Western  language,  a  single 
sentence  not  narrative  or  descriptive,  of  the  literature 
properly  so-called  of  the  Occident." 

An  apology  may  be  found  for  such  intellectual 
debauchery.  The  nineteenth  century  Japanese  had 
the  task  set  them  of  modernizing  their  country  in  one 
generation.  Vital  necessity  —  even  the  preservation 
of  national  existence,  or  at  least  unity  —  prompted 
them  to  adopt  quickly  the  forces  of  Western  civiliza- 
tion. For  the  duty  confronting  them  what  was  their 
best  literary  vehicle  ?  How  could  they  best  write, 
record,  and  communicate  their  new  thoughts  and  vast 
borrowings  ? 

They  may  be  pardoned  for  availing  themselves 
of  the  nearly  infinite  resources  of  the  Chinese  ideo- 
graphs, which,  by  the  way,  are  every  whit  as  useful 
for  writing  English  or  German,  as  for  Japanese. 
Just  as  we  supply  the  ^^ hooks  and  eyes  of  speech"  to 
hold  together  our  Latin  and  Greek  vocabulary,  so  the 
Japanese  add  conjunctions  and  post-positions  to  help 
hold  together  and  in  shape  their  Chinese  strait- 
jacket.  Chinese  script  is  copious  and  flexible  enough 
to  supply  every  demand  of  modern  science.  Never- 
theless the  Japanese  are  debauching  themselves  in 
employing  so  much  Chinese. 

Eminent  patriots,  indignant  and  alarmed  at  this 
steady  Mongolization  of  their  native  tongue,  are 
besieging  the  Department  of  Education  in  Tokio  and 
clamoring  for  reform.  The  weight  of  the  names 
on  the  formal  petition  of  October,  1906,  successor  to 


YAMATO   DAMASHII  81 

the  movement  of  1871,  must  compel  attention  to 
the  claim  that  the  native  language  should  be  de-Mon- 
golized  and  developed  according  to  its  own  genius. 
The  un-Mongolian  Japanese  will  do  well  to  cast  off 
the  incubus  of  Chinese  script  and  use  Romaji  (Roman 
letters).  When  it  is  a  case  of  twenty-six  phonetic 
signs  as  against  eighty  thousand  ideographs,  only 
tradition  and  usage  can  present  arguments  to  the 
reason  against  innovation.  So  long  as  the  authorities 
cling  to  Chinese  writing  they  are  deepening  the  abyss 
between  scholasticism  and  the  people,  retarding  the 
civilization  of  Japan,  and  hindering  the  cause  of 
universal  })rotherhood.  Roman  script  is  in  closer 
accord  with  Japanese  genius  and  history  than  is  the 
ideograph  writing  of  China. 

Having  glanced,  with  the  cold  and  critical  eye  of 
the  alien,  at  Yamato  speech,  while  not  insensible  to 
its  beauties,  we  may  now  approach  the  subject  of 
*' those  exact  coordinations,  which  the  ear  perceives 
as  rhythm,  tune,  and  tone-color,  suggested  to  the  ear 
by  a  series  of  musical  sounds,  the  result  [being] 
music." 

Not  least  among  the  arts  introduced  from  India 
and  China  that  were  to  stimulate,  develop,  and  ex- 
press the  emotions  of  the  islanders,  was  that  of  music. 
What  progress  had  already  been  made  in  the  pre- 
Chinese  ages,  we  have  no  means  of  knowing,  though 
it  is  evident  the  art  of  making  sound  the  interpreter 
of  feeling  was  well  advanced. 

Singing  and  dancing,  from  unmeasured  time,  have 


82  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

been  the  most  natural  means  of  expressing  the  feel- 
ings both  of  sorrow  and  of  joy,  and  the  Records  show 
their  existence  long  before  writing.  The  Japanese 
story  opens  with  a  dance.  Poetry  and  song,  music 
and  the  arts,  went  hand  in  hand.  Legend,  emerging 
out  of  mythology,  tells  us  of  the  origin  before  the 
cave  door  of  the  fine  arts  and  their  instruments. 
Uzume,  the  first  geisha,  is  the  prototype  of  all  Japan- 
ese musicians. 

The  primitive  age  of  Japanese  music  is  pictured  in 
the  Kojiki  as  follows:  ''With  profound  device  and 
far-reaching  thought,  the  Thought-Combiner  at  length 
gathered  long-singing  birds  of  the  Eternal  Land  and 
made  them  utter  their  prolonged  cry  to  one  another," 
all  of  which  means  that  two  sets  of  roosters  were  set 
crowing  long  and  loud,  one  to  the  other.  Besides 
this  orchestra  of  crowing  cocks,  Uzume,  leader  of 
the  dance,  made  music  by  blowing  through  a  bamboo, 
with  holes  pierced  in  it  between  the  joints,  while  other 
deities  kept  time  —  exactly  as  the  Ainu  do  to-day  — 
with  two  pieces  of  wood  which  they  struck  together! 
Another  celestial  artisan  made  a  sort  of  harp  by 
placing  six  bows  close  together  with  the  strings 
upward.  These  strings  were  made  of  the  beard  or 
necklace  moss,  which  hangs  from  the  branches  of  the 
pine  on  the  high  hills.  Making  a  fiddle-bow  of  wire- 
grass  and  sedge,  and  holding  the  ends  in  his  hands, 
his  son  drew  across  the  six  strings  and  made  (koto) 
music.  With  bells  and  baton  made  of  bamboo  grass, 
Uzume,  with  head-dress  of  moss  and  with  her  sleeves 


YAMATO  DAMASHII  83 

duly  bound  up,  directed  the  orchestra  as  she  danced 
on  the  tub,  or  sounding-board.  The  words  which 
she  uttered,  as  the  spirit  of  folly  possessed  her,  now 
serve  as  the  numerals  one,  two,  three,  four,  five,  etc., 
up  to  ten.  Another  interpretation  of  the  words 
bids  the  gods  look  at  the  cave  door  and  at  Uzume's 
charms  bared  to  the  public. 

On  this  pretty  myth  is  founded  the  Kagura,  or 
''Comedy  which  makes  the  gods  laugh,"  the  village 
performance  by  strolling  players  which  forever 
amuses  the  people.  Furthermore,  before  the  dawn 
of  history  the  Nippon  islanders  joincMl  music  to  the 
dance,  and  linked  all  their  mythology,  poetry,  and 
history  to  music  as  the  best  interpretation  of  their 
emotions.  When,  therefore,  new  mechanical  facilities 
w(Te  borrowed  from  China,  or  improved  from  native 
originals,  there  was  not  so  much  novelty  as  reen- 
forcement.  The  new  orchestra,  as  developed,  con- 
tained instruments  of  wind,  string,  and  percussion. 

From  the  first  Japanese  music  was  to  suffer  limi- 
tation of  growth  in  variety  and  composition,  but  by 
tlie  law  of  compensation  to  gain  in  tonality.  The 
fathers  of  Chinese  philosophy  had  expressed  the  poetry 
of  the  cosmos  and  the  mathematics  of  the  universe 
chiefly  in  terms  of  five,  there  being  the  five  points  of 
space  and  of  the  compass  (including  the  centre), 
five  atmospheric  influences,  five  roots  of  life  or  moral 
powers,  five  planets,  five  constituents  of  the  human 
frame,  etc.,  there  must  naturally  be  the  five  points 
of  harmony  forming  the  Chinese  musical  scale.     This 


84  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

meant  leaving  out  two  of  the  notes  (the  fourth  and 
seventh)  in  the  European  scale. 

Mr.  F.  T.  Piggott,  in  the  Transactions  of  the 
Asiatic  Society  of  Japan  (Vol.  XIX),  declares 
that,  speaking  broadly,  the  Chinese  scale,  from  which 
the  Japanese  is  descended,  is  made  by  dividing  the 
octave  into  twelve  equal  intervals,  and  so  also  is  the 
Western  scale.  These  intervals  are  called  in  Chinese 
ritsu;  in  the  West,  semitones.  ''The  different  scale 
of  Japan  if  it  exists,  exists  because  different  notes 
have  been  selected  from  those  which  have  been 
selected  in  Europe  to  form  its  diatonic  scale  or 
basis  of  its  musical  composition.  From  the  same 
chromatic  scale,  it  is  obviously  possible  to  construct 
many  different  diatonic  scales." 

The  same  author,  basing  his  argument  on  the  evi- 
dence which  the  tuning  of  the  Yamato  koto  supplies, 
thinks  that  a  diatonic  scale  almost  certainly  existed 
in  China,  which  was  identical  in  construction  with  the 
diatonic  scale  of  the  West,  and  that  something 
remarkably  like  this  scale  existed  in  very  early  times 
in  Japan. 

The  repertoire  of  Japanese  music  is  astonishingly 
large,  though  few  foreigners  have  given  serious 
study  to  that  which  so  deeply  moves  the  Japanese 
heart  and  mind.  Nevertheless  to  despise  or  ignore 
these  flowers  of  human  genius  in  Japan  is  to  fail  in 
understanding  the  people  who  love  and  enjoy  and 
are  stirred  by  this  music.  Sympathy  means  inter- 
pretation.    W^hy  is  it  not  as  necessary  to  learn  the 


YAMATO   DAMASHII  85 

secret  of  the  power  in  the  music  of  the  Japanese  as  in 
th(;ir  Hterature  ? 

The  author  has  been  ridiculed  because  of  his 
references  to  the  Nihon  Guai  Shi  or  Unofficial  History 
of  Japan  of  Rai  Sanyo  (1780-1832),  whose  name,  in 
company  with  those  of  Michizane  and  the  other 
lit(Tary  stars  of  the  first  magnitude  in  all  ages  and 
countries,  he  had  caused  to  be  incised  on  the  western 
side  of  the  granite  walls  of  the  Boston  Public  Library. 
One  reason  why  this  work  of  Rai  is  so  true,  and  thus 
belongs  to  the  literature  of  power,  is  that  it  was 
unofficial  as  against  the  official  view  held  in  Yedo 
castle.  So,  music  is  the  true  utterance  of  the  human 
heart,  here  as  elsewhere.  Remembering  that  this 
book  formed  the  political  opinions  of  the  men  who 
in  1868  overthrew  the  old  order  and  elevated  the 
Mikado  to  supremacy,  recalling  the  glow  on  the  faces 
of  the  students  who  read  it  day  and  night,  having 
seen  strong  men  burst  into  tears  over  it,  I  felt  what  I 
wrote.  So  also,  in  the  case  of  music  and  art,  I  speak 
earnestly  and  agree  with  Mr.  Okakura  in  what  he 
saj^s.  "Any  hi.story  of  Japanese  art-ideals  is  then 
almost  an  impossibility  so  long  as  the  Western  world 
remains  so  unaware  of  the  varied  environment  and 
interrelated  social  phenomena  into  which  that  art 
is  set  as  it  were  a  jewel." 

The  special  forms  of  musical  drama,  or,  we  might 
say,  comic  opera,  are  callcil  usually  after  their  in- 
ventor. Many  classes  of  i)opular  songs,  illustrating 
almost  every  phase  of  social  condition,  aiic.  and  sex_, 


86  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

float  and  sink  in  the  waves  of  popularity :  songs  for  the 
rich  man  and  the  poor  man,  for  the  moonlight  dance 
of  peasants  on  the  seashore,  for  the  maids  at  salt- 
making  or  tea-picking,  for  the  girl's  battledore  and 
shuttlecock,  for  the  planting  of  the  rice,  for  the 
laboring  maids  at  pestle  and  mortar,  for  the  workmen 
and  sailors,  and  amazingly  numerous  and  rich  is  the 
mass  of  tradition  concerning  the  standard  favorites. 
During  those  years  of  political  and  social  upheaval, 
with  daily  novelties  and  innovations  from  1870  to 
1874,  I  made  a  collection  of  fresh  street-songs  which 
amusingly  hit  off  the  fashions,  shed  light  on  popular 
notions,  and  interpreted,  as  in  a  magic  mirror,  what 
was  behind  the  opaque  screen  that  hides  from  the 
alien  so  much  native  thought  and  emotion.  In 
general  it  may  be  said  that  the  Japanese  are  a  musical 
people,  whether  our  ears  enjoy  their  vocal  and  instru- 
mental performances  or  not.  Music  is  something 
else  than  a  product  of  the  schools. 

Having  attended  some  of  the  monastery  recitals, 
the  concerts  of  the  Mikado's  band,  the  No,  or  classic 
operatic  performances,  made  brilliant  to  the  eye  by 
pantomime  in  highest  art  beside  superb  dresses  of 
gold  and  silver,  I  am  sure  that  music  nobly  interprets 
the  native  mind  and  history.  At  several  occasions, 
at  concerts  given  by  the  tonsured  musical  brethren 
in  the  monastery  in  Fukui,  I  have,  after  hearing 
the  same  performance  several  times  over,  richly 
enjoyed  certain  portions.  I  have  found  a  good  deal 
of  likeness  between  Japanese  music  and  Wagner's, 


YAMATO   DAMASHII  87 

discovering  at  least  the  same  end  in  view,  —  the  inter- 
pretation of  emotion.  Not  a  few  of  the  Japanese  tunes 
can  be  played  on  the  black  keys  of  the  piano.  I  am 
bound  to  confess,  however,  that  there  have  been  occa- 
sions when,  like  some  of  the  other  foreigners  present, 
I  preferred  to  be  at  one  of  those  absolutely  silent 
concerts,  sometimes  held  in  Shinto  temples  and  one 
of  which  I  saw.  At  these,  there  were  skilled  musicians 
and  instruments,  and  the  whole  performance  was  gone 
through  with  in  the  brain.  There  was  absolutely  no 
sound  whatsoever. 

For  the  widest  range  of  the  expression  of  emotion, 
the  koto,  with  its  amazing  possibilities  in  the  hands 
of  an  experienced  player,  is  the  favorite  instrument. 
I^'or  war  music  and  the  rendition  of  battle  passion, 
(h'um  and  cymbals  are  most  employed.  That  the 
Japanese  ear  is,  on  the  whole,  probably  better  fitted 
tlian  the  Occidental's  to  enjoy  the  sounds  in  nature 
seems  evident.  It  is  no  uncommon  thing  for  a  lover 
of  evening  and  twilight  sounds  to  go  far  away  from 
the  city  streets  into  the  solitudes  of  swamp  and 
mountain,  delighting  his  soul  in  the  solos  and  con- 
certs of  the  frogs,  the  crickets,  and  the  birds.  In  a 
word,  the  great  orchestra  of  nature  in  Japan  is 
highly  appreciated  by  her  sons  and  daughters. 

It  is  quite  certain  that  the  Occident  is  yet  to  be 
eni'iched  by  the  treasures  of  tone  which  are  to  float 
to  us  on  the  medium  of  harmony.  It  is  good  for  us 
to  study  Japanese  and  Oriental  music,  for  thereby 
we   can   best   understand  the  temperament  of  the 


88  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

nation  and  learn  how  and  why  Japanese  music 
expresses  so  well  the  emotions  of  the  people  out  of 
whose  heart  it  rolls.  Throughout  the  centuries  they 
have  given  great  attention  to  music  and  have  accu- 
mulated a  rich  store  of  melodious  sound,  creating  the 
while  a  wonderful  fabric  of  tonality.  I  doubt  not 
that  the  Western  world  is  yet  to  be  surprised  with  a 
revelation  of  stored-up  power.  The  Japanese  masters, 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  their  own  musical  treas- 
ures, will  doutbless,  by  means  of  our  systems  of  nota- 
tion and  musical  translation,  bear  the  keys  which  are 
yet  to  swing  wide  the  doors  of  some  of  the  old  but 
as  yet  unopened  treasure-chambers  of  Everlasting 
Great  Japan. 

It  cannot  have  escaped  the  attention  of  students 
of  the  age  of  Yamato  Damashii  that  woman  held 
relatively  a  much  higher  position  than  in  the  later  ages 
when  Mongolian  and  Chinese  ideas  prevailed.  It  is 
but  a  return  to  primitive  feeling  and  customs  when 
the  modern  Japanese,  unshackling  themselves  from 
Chinese  notions,  borrow  Germanic  and  Christian 
ideas  to  purify  and  exalt  the  ancient  tradition. 
During  the  struggle  with  Russia  the  daughters  of 
the  land  showed  themselves  worthy  of  the  noblest 
inheritances  of  antiquity.  From  noble  lady  to  peas- 
ant girl,  all  were  heroines  in  courage,  industry,  and 
sacrifice.  The  high  percentage  of  the  attendance  of 
girls  at  the  public  schools  and  Women's  University 
in  Tokio,  and  the  splendid  training  given  in  the 
Christian    kindergartens,     elementary    schools,  and 


*   ^*«^l#^ 


Studknts  in  thk  Woman's  Univkrsity  in  Tokio 


YAMATO   DAMASHII 


89 


academies  give  grand  promise  of  a  generation  of 
woinon  who  shall  in  graces  and  powers  of  mind  and 
body  surpass  even  their  idealized  ancestors.  It 
may  even  come  to  pass  that  Japan's  Golden  Age  will 
be  located  in  the  future. 


CHAPTER  VI 

STONE   AGE   AND   IRON   AGE 

The  story  of  Cain  and  Abel  —  agriculturist  and 
hunter,  rover  and  sedentary  man  —  is  mirrored  in  the 
stone  age  and  the  iron  age  of  Nippon,  and  in  the 
thousand  years'  warfare  between  Yezo  and  Yamato. 
The  two  culture  camps  made  a  constantly  changing 
frontier,  moving  ever  northward. 

In  the  year  alleged  to  be  a.d.  95,  but  probably 
much  later,  orders  were  given  to  inquire  into  the 
geography  of  the  east  and  north  regions  of  the  main 
island,  with  whose  area  and  outline  the  Yamato 
poeple  were  not  as  yet  acquainted.  The  explorer 
Sukune,  returning  from  his  travels  in  East  land, 
made  a  report  like  that  of  Caleb.  He  spoke  of  the 
Country  of  the  Sun  Height  ''in  the  eastern  wilds, 
where  the  people  tie  up  their  hair  like  mallets  and 
tattoo  their  bodies.  Fierce  in  temper  their  general 
name  is  Yemishi.  Their  land  is  wide  and  fertile. 
We  should  attack  them  and  take  them."  In  a  word, 
Ainu  land  was  Yezo  and  a  rich  food  plain,  later  called 
Kuanto,  on  which  Tokio  now  stands.  Did  the  sight 
of  Fuji  stir  Sukune's  aesthetic  sensibilities,  or  had 
not  this  volcano  yet  assumed  its  peerless  form? 


STONE  AGE  AND  IRON  AGE  91 

rteen  years  later,  ^' there  was  wide  rebellion 
m  Ihe  eastern  wilds  and  the  frontier  was  in  a  state  of 
tumult."  This  means  most  probably  that  some 
concerted  movement  of  the  Ainu,  such  as  we  think 
of  as  made  by  the  Indians  under  King  Phillip,  Pon- 
tiac,  or  Tecumseh,  was  being  organized  to  drive  the 
Yamato  men  back.  The  problem  from  the  Yamato 
side  was  geographic.  It  turned  upon  the  question 
of  frontal  or  fiank  attack.  Should  a  wedge  be  driven 
into  this  primitive  culture  beyond  the  mountains 
lying  at  the  thirty-sixth  parallel  clear  across  Hondo  ? 

The  Kuanto,  or  Tokio  region,  contains  the  largest 
and  most  fertile  single  area  in  Japan.  The  densest 
population  of  the  Ainu,  as  the  shell-heaps  seem  to 
indicate,  was  in  Musashi.  It  was  one  of  those  fertile 
plains,  which  in  the  Japanese  story  are  ever 
goal,  and  often  the  supreme  purpose  of  war,  as 
n(>tably,  in  1904,  it  was  the  vital  object  to  secure  rice- 
fields  beyond  sea.  Whether  should  they  advance 
through  the  passes  into  the  tableland  of  Hida  and 
Shinano,  using  this  key  to  the  position  northward ;  or, 
whether  to  move  far  eastward,  and  thence,  by  a  flank 
movement,  round  the  bases  of  the  mountains  and 
tlien  over  the  plateau  down  and  back  to  Yamato  ? 
What  should  be  the  strategy  and  who  the  hero  ? 

Now,  unless  the  whole  story  be  a  sun  myth,  this 
ive  exploration,  made  in  darkest  Hondo,  helped 
erfully  to  decide  the  fate  of  the  Aryan  Ainu, 
"i'amato  Dake,  or  the  Yamato  brave,  dealt  a  blow 
against  Ainu  culture  comparable  to  the  destruction 


m 


^^^    ISO 

powe 


92  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

of  the  Iroquois  Confederacy  of  the  Six  Nations,  by 
General  John  SuUivan  in  1779.  The  hero  showed 
himself  capable  of  coping  with  the  Eastern,  as  already 
he  had  done  with  the  Southern  '^rebels." 

This  handsome  young  warrior  disguised  himself 
as  a  girl,  and  with  a  sword  in  his  underclothing  at- 
tended a  high  banquet  given  by  a  Kumaso  chief. 
Fascinated  by  rosy  cheeks  and  black  eyes  he  took  the 
supposed  maiden  by  the  hand,  giving  her  a  seat  beside 
him,  and  plied  his  guest  with  drink.  But  Holophernes 
had  his  Judith.  The  lad  at  the  right  moment,  when 
the  brave  was  well  drunk,  stabbed  him  to  death. 
The  narrative,  with  the  proper  speeches,  in  pompous 
Chinese  fashion  duly  set  by  the  penmen  of  later  cen- 
turies in  each  mouth,  tells  how  the  young  warrior 
slew  evil  ^'deities."  Then  we  are  told  how  in  a.d.  110 
the  emperor  (with  his  mouth  duly  stuffed  with  speeches 
taken  out  of  Chinese  books)  addressed  his  '^ministers" 
concerning  the  turbulent  ''deities"  that  had  sprung 
up  in  the  East  land  and  that  the  Yemishi  had 
''  rebelled  to  a  man  and  frequently  carry  off  the 
people." 

.  In  plain  English,  the  Ainu  savages  had  made  raids 
upon  the  agricultural  settlers  on  the  frontier  and  car- 
ried off  the  people  as  prisoners.  All  this  is  mirrored 
both  in  Shinto  ritual  and  Ainu  hero-tales.  The 
Ainu  chanters  of  song  and  tellers  of  legend  still  relate 
how  their  ancestors  attacked  the  Japanese  out- 
posts, killing  the  male  adults,  carrying  off  the  women, 
and  niaking  slaves  of  the  youth. 


STONE  AGE  AND  IRON  AGE  93 

en  the  Yamato  hero  reached  Suruga,  the  sav- 
ages, professing  to  submit,  lured  the  invader  into  the 
long  grass  of  the  prairie.  Then  they  set  it  on  fire, 
hoping  to  burn  their  enemy.  Quickly  pulling  out 
his  materials,  flint  and  steel  or  fire-drill,  he  kindled 
a  counter  flame.  Then  mowing  away  the  near 
underbrush   with  his  sword,   he  saved  the  lives  of 

If  and  followers.  Thereafter  he  changed  the 
e  of  his  good  blade,  formerly  called  Clustering 
Clouds,  to  Grass  Mower.  In  revenge,  he  caught 
some  Ainu  chiefs  and  burned  them  alive  at  the  place 
long  called  Fire  Port. 

jpming  to  the  bay  on  whicii  are  now  Tokio  and 

hama,  and  probably  misled,  as  are  Europeans  in 
^lorado,  by  the  clear  atmosphere  which  annihilates 
distance,  he  looked  over  the  Bay  of  Yedo.  Speaking 
contemptuously  of  the  ''galloping  water"  so  called,  he 
said,  ''This  is  but  a  little  sea,  and  one  might  even 
jump  over  it."  On  attempting  to  cro.^s,  however,  a 
great  storm  arose,  baffling  his  purpose.  In  order  to 
appease  the  sea-god's  wrath,  one  of  his  ladies,  Tachi- 
bana,  or  the  Princess  Orange,  leaped  into  the  billows 
and  drowned  herself.  At  once  a  great  calm  followed. 
As  true  as  a  fairy  tale  is  this  story  of  the  sacrificing 
woman.  As  fact,  it  is  for  the  nursery.  As  truth, 
it  is  reality.  The  Japanese  woman  —  it  has  taken 
long  ages  to  produce  her  —  has  probably  no  superior 
on  earth  as  mother,  wife,  daughter,  companion,  in 
those  virtues  which  mean  sclf-efTnccnH'nf  and  self- 
sacrifice. 


Colon 


94  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

On  the  opposite  shore  at  Shimosa,  the  Ainu  chiefs, 
who  had  at  first  expected  to  fight,  changed  their 
minds.  Throwing  away  their  bows  and  arrows,  they 
waded  into  the  waves,  drew  up  the  prince's  boat 
on  the  beach,  and  submitted  with  prostrations.  The 
hero  graciously  pardoned  them  and  they  served  him. 

He  passed  through  Hitachi  to  Kai,  and  thence 
through  Musashi  and  Kodzuke.  At  the  pass  of 
Kusui,  on  the  famous  Nakasendo  Road,  he  looked 
down  over  the  great  plain  toward  the  ocean,  and, 
thinking  of  his  martyr  lady,  he  sighed  three  times 
saying  in  remembrance  of  her,  Adzuma  (Alas,  my 
wife !). 

Around  this  transparent  product  of  mj^thology 
has  grown  a  vast  mass  of  legend,  poetry,  and  senti- 
ment. When,  in  1869,  the  modern  Imperial  Govern- 
ment was  established  on  this  great  plain,  the  first 
iron-clad  man-of-war  (British,  Confederate,  American, 
and  Japanese  in  turn)  had  its  name  changed  from 
Stonewall  to  Adzuma.  In  Yezo  waters,  the  steam 
ram  compelled  the  surrender  of  the  wooden  ships  of 
the  rebels.  The  present  Emperor's  nephew,  travelling 
in  America  in  1870,  was  known  as  Prince  Adzuma. 
The  name  itself  is  probably  Ainu,  and  the  stories  were 
told  to  explain  its  apparently  Japanese  form. 

Going  himself  into  the  high  mountain  land,  Yamato 
Dake  sent  one  of  his  captains  by  another  road  west- 
ward across  the  main  island  to  Koshi,  or  the 
Echizen  region,  in  order  to  learn  the  temper  of  the 
Ainu  there. 


I 


STONE  AGE  AND  IRON  AGE  95 


the  Shinano  plateau,  where  were  "verdant 
summits  piled  up  ten  thousand  fold  so  that  for  men 
with  staff  in  hand,  they  are  hard  to  ascend,"  the 
hero  found  evidences  of  Ainu  industry  and  engineering. 
Precipitous  cliffs  were  provided  with  flying  bridges 
made  of  poles  girt  in  the  rocks,  but  "even  with 
slackened  rein  the  horse  made  no  progress."  Never- 
theless, bursting  through  the  smoke  and  braving  the 
mists,  the  prince  crossed  Oyama  and  nearly  reached 
summit  of  this  famous  mountain, 
far,  mortal  man  strenuous  and  persistent ! 
Now  come  more  fairy  tales  and  the  "gods"  emerge 
in  beast  form.  A  white  deer,  the  mountain  spirit, 
opposed  the  hero,  who  shook  garlic  in  the  deer's 
eye,  killing  it.  Then  a  white  dog  appeared  to  lead 
the  daring  explorer  down  into  Mino.  Hitherto 
revellers  over  these  heights  had  l)een  made  ill,  but 
eforth,  by  chewing  garlic,  or  smearing  it  on  their 
oclies,  men,  horses,  and  cattle  were  able  to  cross  the 
tain  without  suffering  from  the  "god's"  wither- 
breath. 
other  bout  with  a  mountain  "deity"  took  place 
uki,  in  Omi,  where  the  god  took  the  form  of  a  ser- 
pent. The  hero  passed  contemptuously  over  the  snake 
tis  path,  thinking  it  only  the  god's  messenger,  but 
nee  icy  rain  fell.  Lost  in  the  mist  and  gloom,  he 
\\as  nearly  overcome.  When,  like  a  drunken  man, 
fcappily  found  a  spring  of  water  at  which  he  drank, 
P  recovered  his  senses.  "Sit-Sober  spring"  was 
henceforth  its  name. 


^^Doaii 


96  JAPANESE  NATION   IN  EVOLUTION 

Worn  out  by  his  labors,  the  hero  fell  ill,  but  con- 
tinued on  to  Ise.  He  found  at  the  foot  of  a  pine 
tree  a  sword  he  had  left  there  a  year  before.  At 
Nobo,  he  dedicated  to  the  shrine,  as  slaves,  some  of 
the  Ainu  prisoners  he  had  taken  —  probably  following 
a  thousand  precedents  and  giving  an  example  of 
thousands  more  in  later  history,  since  for  a  millennium 
or  more,  the  majority  of  the  '^  Japanese"  people  were 
either  serfs  or  slaves.  Then  sending  a  message  to  his 
kami,  or  superior,  he  died  at  the  age  of  thirty. 

Legend  plays  as  many  pranks  with  Yamato  Dake's 
corpse  as  with  the  mountain  deities.  On  the  moor 
of  Nobo  a  tomb  was  built  to  contain  the  body  of  this 
Napoleon  of  'Hhe  Japanese  Alps."  On  its  comple- 
1?ion  a  white  bird  flew  out.  Opening  the  stone  coffin, 
nothing  was  seen  but  clothes.  Following  the  white 
bird,  it  was  seen  to  alight  in  Yamato.  Here  again 
another  burial  chamber  was  built,  but  again  a  white 
bird  flew  out.  It  rested  this  time  in  Furuchi,  where 
a  third  sepulchre  was  built,  when  lo !  a  white  bird 
flew  up  to  Heaven,  so  that  only  the  hero's  cap  and 
gown  were  entombed.  The  people  called  these  three 
structures  the  White  Bird  Tombs,  and  to  perpetuate 
the  fame  of  his  services,  the  Mikado  founded  the 
guild  of  the  brave.  This  threefold  myth  probably 
arose,  as  Mr.  Aston  tells  us,  from  the  fact  that  the 
white  egret  in  Japan,  as  I  have  often  noticed,  makes 
the  dolmen  mounds  his  favorite  resort,  flying  from 
one  to  another. 

The  notices  in  the  Records  and  Chronicles  of  the 


STOXE  AGE  AND  IRON  AGE  97 

however  luxuriant  with  Chinese  rhetoric,  ex- 
press the  current  opinions  in  Yamato  about  these 
savages  beyond  the  frontier,  on  the  plains,  and  the 
reservations.  To  one  who  knows  about  the  red  men 
in  North  America,  since  Indian  wars  are  over,  and  the 
reservation  has  come  in  place  of  raid  and  ambuscade, 
tlie  story  of  these  prehistoric  Ainu  reads  like  that  of 
la  Moga,"  or  something  that  happened  yesterday 
"Montana.  For  example,  we  are  told  that  the 
u  savages,  made  slaves  at  the  Nobo  shrine,  behaved 
dly  that  the  virgin  priestess  in  charge  refused 
(riet  them  come  near  it.  ''They  bawled  day  and 
night  and  were  disrespectful  in  their  goings  out  and 
comings  in."  So  these  noisy  Ainu  were  sent  up  to  the 
Imperial  Court  and  the  Mikado  settled  them  in  a  new 

Ijrvation  at  Mount  Mimoro.  Here  they  behaved 
|better.  They  cut  down  the  trees  on  the  moun- 
1,  bawled  in  the  villages,  and  threatened  the 
tie. 
b  after  conference  with  his  ministers,  the  Mikado 
pred  the  Ainu  out  of  the  Home  Provinces,  giving 
m  permission  to  settle  where  they  pleased.  "They 
were  the  ancestors  of  the  ])resent  guikl  of  Assistant- 


^^Ainu  .^ 
^H|fe)a( 

^^riet 


tfs  of  the  five  provinces  of  Harima,  Sanuki,  lyo. 


^i 


Aki,  and  Awa."  Here  we  have  one  of  the  first  indica- 
s  in  writing  that  the  Ainu  were  not  wholly  driven 
y,  or  exterminated,  but  absorbed  in  the  Japanese 
mass.  This  being  but  one  of  scores  of  such  records, 
no  proof  could  be  stronger  of  the  scattering  of  the 
Ainu  among  the  Yamato  people  and  their  inclusion 


98  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

as  a  vital  factor  in  the  making  of  the  Japanese 
nation. 

The  Hne  of  fifteen  provinces  north  of  the  Tokaido, 
or  Eastern  Sea  Road,  and  lying  between  the  central 
mountain  range  which  forms  the  backbone  of  Hondo, 
and  the  Pacific,  is  called  the  Eastern  Mountain  Road 
or  Circuit.  It  is  recorded  that  in  a.d.  125,  the  Mikado 
made  a  tour  thither,  even  to  the  provinces  of  Kadzusa 
and  Awa  beyond  Yedo  Bay. 

Near  the  village  of  Omura,  in  Kodzuke,  are  several 
ancient  tumuli  and  dolmens  with  mortuary  chambers. 
These  are  probably  the  tombs  of  the  governors  sent 
by  the  Mikado  to  keep  order  among  the  Ainu,  partly 
pacified  by  Yamato  Dake.  Besides  silver,  copper, 
and  stone,  tube  ('' bugles")  and  curved  jewels, 
weapons,  and  numerous  terra-cotta  pedestals,  found 
in  the  fine  dust  of  ages  were  clay  effigies  of  human 
beings.  These  figures,  which  speak  well  for  the  art 
before  the  days  of  writing,  show  no  ^'MongoHan," 
but  only  Ainu  or  Caucasian  features.  On  the  original 
contents  of  these  and  other  mounds,  the  Records 
and  Chronicles  throw  abundant  light. 

In  A.D.  125,  as  alleged  in  the  Chronicles,  Prince  Hiko 
Sajima  was  appointed  governor  of  the  Eastern  Moun- 
tain Circuit,  but  on  his  way  he  fell  ill  and  died.  The 
Ainu,  who  had  long  grieved  at  his  non-arrival,  secretly 
stole  his  body  and  buried  it  ''in  the  land  of  Kodzuke." 
Then  the  Mikado  appointed  the  dead  man's  son  to  the 
absolute  rule  of  the  Yezo  region.  Reaching  the  new 
territory,  the  Ainu  rose  in  revolt,  but  he  put  down  the 


STONE  AGE  AND  IRON   AGE 


99 


^^slew 


insurrection.  The  native  chiefs  submitted  with  their 
heads  on  the  ground,  giving  up  all  their  lands.  Be- 
tween vigorous  decapitation  and  pardon,  Yezo  was 
for  a  long  time  free  from  trouble.  "The  prince's 
descendants  are  to  this  day  in  the  Eastern  Land." 
Again,  in  3G7,  the  Ainu  revolted  in  Kadzusa  and 
w  Tamichi,  who  had  been  sent  to  quell  them, 
made  raids  against  the  Yamato  people  settled 
ainong  them,  and  carried  them  off  captives  to  their 
villages.  They  boldly  broke  open  Tamichi's  tomb, 
but  when  a  great  serpent  with  glaring  eyes  started 
up  and  thrust  its  fangs  at  them,  they  fled.  Most 
of  the  Ainu  who  were  bitten  died.  The  Yamato  men 
argued  that  ''Tamichi  at  last  had  his  revenge.     How 

it  be  said  that  the  dead  have  no  knowledge?" 
ring  these  early  centuries,  it  was  a  drain  on  the 

ato   realm   to   furnish   soldiers   for  Korea,   and 
Ainu  were  given  employment  in  the  Mikado's 

ies,  even  beyond  sea.     In  479,  Oshiro,  the  Japan- 
ese  Sir  William  Johnson,  having  five  hunched  Ainu 

iers  under  his  command,  arrived   in    Hingo  on 
IS  way  to  Shinra.     Afterwards  these  fellows,  hearing 

e  Mikado's  death,  spoke  one  to  another,  saying, 

e  Emperor  who  controls  our  country  is  dead. 

opportunity  should  not  be  lost."     Then  they  rose 

utiny,  but  in  the  end  all  were  put  to  death. 

e  last  notices  of  the  Ainu  in  the  First  Book  of  the 
Chronicles  is  that  of  a.d.  483,  when  the  Palace  Guards 
(Hayato,  swift  men)  and  the  Ainu  rendered  homage. 
The   first   notice  in  Book  II  is  in  a.d.  540.     ''The 


ese  i; 

nis  \^ 


100  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

Palace  Guards  and  the  Yemishi,  both  bringing  their 
people  with  them,  came  and  rendered  allegiance." 

During  these  early  centuries,  and  until  a.d.  663, 
when  the  Japanese  were  driven  out  of  Korea  by  the 
Chinese  and  their  Korean  allies,  in  the  great  Tang 
invasion,  there  was  continual  going  and  coming 
between  the  archipelago  and  the  peninsula.  Of 
this,  we  have  treated  in  '^The  Mikado's  Empire"  and 
''Corea,  the  Hermit  Nation."  It  was  an  important 
step  in  the  evolution  of  the  Japanese  when  Korea  was 
definitely  eliminated  as  a  colony  or  dependency  from 
the  problem  of  nation-making  in  the  islands,  and  the 
Yamato  people  applied  themselves  with  renewed 
energy  to  the  full  possession  of  their  own  domain, 
especially  in  the  main  island,  Hondo,  and  to  the  still 
more  important  task  of  raising  the  masses  out  of 
savagery  and  barbarism  into  civilization. 


CHAPTER  VII 


THE    HIGHEST   AND   THE    LOWEST 


^™Ei 


HE  Japanese  are  more  or  less  of  a  puzzle  lo  ine 
people  of  those  nations  in  which  personality  is  more 
than  institutions.  When  one  reads  of  *'the  oldest 
line  of  rulers  in  the  world"  and  of  "a  line  of  emperors 
dgroken  for  ages  eternal,"  he  expects  to  discover 
|bis  hst  scores  of  illustrious  personages  famous  in 
history.  Surely  such  a  "River  of  Heaven"  must  be 
full  of  stars  of  the  first  magnitude.  When  he  realizes 
that  Mikadoisni  is  the  secret  of  Jai)anese  unity,  as 
tional  development,  the  Institution  being  older 
the  State,  he  is  still  more  puzzled  to  find  that 
most  bearers  of  the  Imperial  names  were  not  suns,  or 
but  shadows.  Mere  shades,  nonentities  of  no 
peTlonal  importance,  make  up  the  greater  bulk  of 
e  who  bore  these  posthumous  names.  But  why 
s?  Is  it  the  effect  of  the  political  machinery 
lat  cramped  individuality?  The  Chinese  bind  the 
feet  of  their  women.  Did  the  Japanese  poHticians 
constrict  the  brains  of  their  rulers? 

E curacy  requires  an  affirmative  answer.     When 
ealizes  the  feeble  sense  of  personality  as  shown  in 
language  —  which  in  this  one  respect  is  below 
101 


^Triat  c 


102  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

the  Ainu  standard  —  the  mystery  lessens.  It  then 
becomes  clear  that  it  is  not  so  much  the  particular 
person  who  sat  on  the  ancient  mats  or  who  sits  on 
the  modern  throne,  as  it  is  the  office  or  the  descent 
incarnated  in  him,  which  the  Japanese  consider  divine. 
The  ''spirits  of  the  Mikado's  ancestors"  are  the  spirits 
of  the  nation  —  which  some  day  will  be  written  with 
one  word  and  with  the  greatest  of  all  Names. 

It  is  chiefly  the  Western  world  that  knows  the  name 
of  the  Imperial  person  named  Mutsuhito,  who  began 
his  rule  in  a.d.  1867;  for  millions  of  his  subjects  in 
Japan  hardly  know  his  name,  certainly  do  not  use  it, 
and  rarely  utter  it.  To  future  generations,  he  will  be 
known  as  the  Meiji  Tenno. 

Modern  Japanese  do  not  employ  the  earthly,  his- 
torical, and  common-sense  term  Mikado,  except 
perhaps  in  poetry.  They  use  the  sentimental  title 
"Tenno,"  or  ''Tenshi"  (theocrat,  son  or  king  with 
divine  authority),  which  is  a  Chinese  idea  binding  him 
and  his  ancestry  with  Heaven,  thereby  showing  their 
slavish  adherence  to  Mongolian  notions.  One  native 
scholar  protests  against  the  use  of  ''this  obsolete  and 
ambiguous  word,"  Mikado,  "in  spite  of  its  wide 
usage  in  foreign  literature,"  but  his  reasons  do  but 
reveal  the  strength  of  our  own  argument.  "It 
originally  meant  not  only  the  sovereign  but  also  his 
house,  the  Court,  and  even  the  State."  Just  so ! 
It  would  be  hard  to  imagine  the  sentence  quoted  above 
to  have  been  written  by  a  native  of  Japan  not  edu- 
cated in  Western  lands.     Let  us  trust  that  the  modern 


THE  HIGHEST  AND  THE  LOWEST  103 

term  Emperor  really  means  a  person,  with  an  indi- 
viduality and  personality,  and  not  merely  the  incarna- 
tion of  an  institution,  as  Mikado,  or  Place  of  Awe, 
certainly  meant  in  mediaeval  days.  The  mental 
associations  of  an  American  with  the  title  "Emperor," 
because  assumed  in  Hayti  and  ever  lessening  in 
prestige,  are  too  comical  to  command  respect.  ''  Mi- 
kado" is  ancient,  solemn,  unicjue,  and  supremely 
honorable. 

To  call  a  Mikado  of  the  prehistoric  era  an  ''Em- 
peror" is  to  project  modern  notions,  with  all  the 
associations  called  up  in  an  Occidental  reader's 
mind,  into  barbarous  ages  and  circumstances,  that 
mislead  as  surely  as  does  the  application  of  the  term 
sea  to  a  pond,  or  king  to  Powhatan.  It  is  only  long 
after  the  advent  of  letters,  that  we  can  make  com- 
parison with  Charlemagne  and  contemporaries  in 
Europe  and  Japan,  with  some  degree  of  propriety 
and  to  the  disadvantage  of  neither.  The  Mikado's 
realm  before  written  annals  was,  as  to  area,  an  affair 
of  Connecticut  rather  than  of  Texas  proportions. 
Nearly  fourteen  centuries  after  Jimmu,  the  term 
Sumera  Mikoto,  or  the  August  Unifier,  was  translated 
Supreme  Majesty,  and  expressed  in  the  two  Chinese 
characters  signifying  Tenno,  or  Tenshi,  a  monarch 
ruling  by  the  direct  authority  of  Heaven  —  a  Theocrat. 

The  meaning,  the  animus,  if  one  pleases,  of  our  con- 
tention is  manifest,  when  attention  is  called  to  the  non- 
luminous  spots  in  the  shining  line,  showing  how  com- 
munal culture  swamps  personahty.     Like  the  silver 


104  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

baldric  across  the  sky  of  the  god-land's  story,  emerging 
even  out  of  the  night  of  unrecorded  time,  is  the  list 
of  six-score  names  in  the  Hne  of ''  Emperors,"  yet  most 
of  it  is  nebulous.  Even  in  nursery  lore,  fairy  tale, 
national  consciousness,  or  the  average  scholar's  mem- 
ory, how  few  shine  as  fixed  stars,  or  have  an  individ- 
uality which  arrests  attention  like  planets !  Of  the 
first  seventeen  names  that  are  names  and  nothing 
more,  whose  place  in  chronology  is  wholly  uncertain, 
that  of  Jimmu  is  the  only  one  which,  even  in  tradi- 
tion, connotes  a  hero.  The  tenth  and  the  eleventh, 
Suijin  and  Suinin  (b.c.  97-a.d.  70),  are  believed  to  have 
been  noted  civilizers,  the  former  building  a  shrine  to 
Sky-Shine,  appointing  four  generals  to  subdue  the 
Ainu,  and  constructing  canals,  besides  ordering  taxes 
and  a  census ;  while  the  latter  erects  the  sacred  edifice 
of  Ise  and  substitutes  terra-cotta  figures  in  place  of  the 
ring  of  living  beings  at  the  dolmen  tombs.  Ojin 
(a.d.  270-310),  Queen  Jingu's  offspring,  miraculously 
borne  by  his  mother  during  three  years  of  Amazonian 
war,  while  still  unborn,  is  deified. as  the  god  of  war, 
but  he  was  a  peaceful  shadow,  and  is  great  rather  as 
the  son  of  his  mother.  When  deified  by  the  bonzes 
as  the  incarnation  of  Hachiman,  or  the  Buddha  of 
the  Eight  Banners,  he  became  the  patron  of  the 
Minamoto  clan,  after  a  woman-Mikado  had  in  712 
built  a  temple  in  his  honor. 

Nintoku  (313-399)  has  a  fair  name  because  of  his 
long  reign  and  benevolent  interest  in  his  subjects. 
In   the   time   of   the   energetic    Yuriaku    (457-459) 


THE  HIGHEST  AND  THE  LOWEST  105 

relations  with  Korea  were  active.  Buretsu  (499- 
500),  though  only  a  boy,  reigning  from  his  tenth  to 
his  eighteenth  year,  was  such  a  monster  of  lust  and 
cruelty,  that  he  was  assassinated  in  the  palace.  His 
abominable  doings,  too  foul  to  be  spoken  of,  very 
probably  gave  arguments  to  the  reformers  for  making 
the  Mikado  loss  of  a  person  and  more  of  an  institution, 
and  the  throne  more  and  more  inaccessible,  as  was 
done  in  and  after  the  revolution  of  a.d.  G45.  Then 
the  many-hedged  divinity  was  isolated  by  a  thousand 
layers  of  non-conductive  material  from  any  shock 
of  change,  until  the  pivotal  year  1868,  which  marked 
the  end  of  an  spon. 

With  Suiko  (593-628),  the  vigorous  champion  of 
Buddhism,  begins  the  list  of  women  rulers,  all  of  whom 
seem  to  have  been  fully  equal  to  the  average  male 
occupant  of  the  throne,  while  several  of  them  were 
decidedly  superior.  Jito  (687-696)  was  the  patroness 
of  agriculture  and  silver  coinage.  Another  empress, 
who  reigned  twice,  as  Kogyoku  (642-644),  and  as  8ai- 
nu)\  (655-661),  built  the  first  tiled  palace,  sent  the  gen- 
eral Abe  against  the  Ainu  of  Koshi,  and  inaugurated 
the  feast  of  bon,  or  All  Souls.  She  died  at  the  age  of 
sixty-eight  years  at  Asakura,  when  about  to  lead  her 
armies  to  Korea.  Gemmio  (708-715),  who  blotted  out 
the  memory  of  Aryan  and  Ainu  names  by  burying 
them  under  Chinese  characters  betokening  luck,  fixed 
the  capital  at  Nara,  ordered  the  composition  of  the 
Kojiki,  or  Records,  and  superintended  the  minting 
of  copper  money.     Her  successor,  Gensho  (715-723), 


106  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

active  patroness  of  arts,  letters,  and  agriculture, 
secured  the  writing  of  the  Nihongi,  or  Chronicles. 
Koken  (749-759)  was  reigning  when  the  returned 
scholar  Kibi  Dai j  in,  fresh  from  beyond  seas,  delighted 
the  Court  with  superb  specimens  of  the  art,  the  music, 
and  other  wonders  of  China  and  India.  These  in- 
cluded lovely  embroidery,  the  hiwa  or  lute,  and  go. 
This  absorbing  game,  resembling  checkers,  but  more 
complicated,  is  so  potent  in  fascinations,  that,  accord- 
ing to  the  proverb,  it  tempts  a  player  to  forget  his 
father's  funeral.  Kibi  taught  even  women  to  write 
letters  with  the  kana,  or  syllabary,  of  which  he  was 
by  tradition  the  inventor,  so  that  the  woman's 
epistolary  style  is  as  old  as  it  is  famous.  Koken,  to 
give  an  imposing  proof  of  the  status  of  Buddhism 
in  her  realm,  assembled  five  thousand  priests  in  one 
temple  to  chant  the  sacred  books,  built  the  great 
Buddha  of  Nara,  and  ordered  the  killing  of  domestic 
animals  for  food  to  cease,  thus  early  in  their  history 
making  the  Japanese  vegetarians  in  diet.  Though 
she  once  shaved  her  head  and  retired  to  a  nunnery, 
she  emerged  again  in  765,  as  Shotoku,  to  fill  the  throne 
until  769,  though  with  many  difficulties  to  face.  In 
her  reign,  in  the  far  off  East-land,  the  first  temple  at 
Nikko  was  built. 

All  together  this  group  of  early  empresses  is  noted  for 
vigor,  and  every  name  in  it  shines  out  clearly.  Inci- 
dentally, it  is  shown  also  that  the  position  of  woman 
was  much  higher  in  the  Princess  Country  in  Yamato 
days  than  after  the  entrance  of  Chinese  ideas.      It 


^^ 


THE  HIGHEST  AND  THE  LOWEST  107 

irtain  that  under  their  reign,  the  Japanese  took 
soihe  notable  forward  steps  in  national  evolution, 
ost  of  the  adult  male  Mikados,  other  than  those 
ave  named  in  the  list,  —  for  there  were  many 
puppet  emperors,  boys,  or  babies,  mere  tools  of  poli- 
ticians, —  are  known  chiefly  as  ancestors  of  famous 
families  and  individuals,  thus  illustrating  nature's 
revenge  against  a  communal  system  that  could  not 
wholly  repress  personality.  Such  were  Seiwa  (859- 
876)  and  Saga  (810-823),  imperial  fathers  of  the 
Minamoto  and  Taira.  Others,  whose  names  will 
appear  on  our  later  pages,  emerge  into  clear  view  as 
the  candidates  of  rival  factions,  as  victims  of  plots  or 
ins,  or,  as  in  the  case  of  the  boy  Antoku,  became 
yrs.  Not  until  within  the  memory  of  living 
meii  is  there  a  personality  even  remotely  comparable, 
man  reality  and  freedom  of  action,  to  the  Euro- 
p(?an  sovereigns  of  the  twentieth  century. 
^  the  early  Yamato  days,  the  Mikado  was  a  feudal 
H,  or  a  clan  chieftain,  with  limited  influence  and 
power.  After  the  revolution  of  045,  he  was  virtually 
a  prisoner  in  a  gilded  cage.  Even  yet,  despite  a 
modern  Constitution,  Diet,  and  Bureaucracy,  the 
Mikado  is,  by  tradition  and  compulsion,  more  of  an 
institution  than  a  person.  He  is  the  cryptogram  of 
Japan's  communal  civilization.  Future  generations 
may  see  a  change. 

Now  that  we  have  glanced  at  the  highest  personage 
^^and  the  most  venerable,  even  preancient  institution  in 
^^■^■Koku  Dai  Nippon,  or  the  Country  Ruled  by  a 


^^marty] 
men  ii 


108  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Heaven-descended  Dynasty,  we  can  afford  to  look  at 
humanity  in  the  lowest  stratum  of  Old  Japan.  ''A 
man's  a  man  for  a'  that,"  and  some  day  the  Japanese 
will  so  learn  the  lesson  that  its  truth  shall  be  manifest 
in  their  language,  institutions,  philosophy,  and  shine 
visibly  even  in  their  art.  A  beggar  is  a  man,  and  an 
emperor  is  no  more.  Compared  with  humanity, 
Mikadoism,  State  churchism,  thrones,  and  sceptres 
are  ridiculous. 

In  point  of  fact  and  Japan's  own  record,  her  own 
pariahs  and  outcasts  sprang,  like  her  princes  and 
mikados,  from  Imperial  blood.  Since  in  the  making 
of  the  nation  the  welfare  of  human  beings  is  of  more 
significance  than  gore  and  glory,  and  uplifted  man- 
hood more  than  breast  medals,  we  turn  our  attention 
to  the  origin  and  status  of  the  late  pariahs  and  to  the 
abolition  of  caste,  which  made  the  Japanese  a  nation 
of  true  freemen.  Far  better  than  some  of  their  creeds 
and  theories  is  their  record  in  breaking  the  chains  of 
what  was  worse  than  slavery.  The  name  of  Mutsu- 
hito  will  go  down  in  history  with  that  of  Czar  Alex- 
ander and  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

When  step  by  step  and  detail  by  detail  the  story  of 
the  civiHzation  of  Japan  is  examined  in  comparison 
with  the  eras  of  time  and  the  same  grades  of  progress 
with  the  civilization  of  the  northern  European  nations, 
there  is  seen  to  be  very  little  essential  difference. 
The  Japanese  are  a  young  nation,  however  far  back 
in  time  their  traditions  may  reach.  They  have  all 
the  faults  and  all  the  promise  and  potency  of  a  young 


mt 


THE  HIGHEST  AND  THE  LOWEST  109 

nation.  We  shall  now  look  at  the  last  new  (and  old) 
component, the  ''New  Commoner," made  so  since  1871. 
When  living  in  Japan  I  noticed  particularly  and 
became  especially  interested  in  outcast  humanity, 
beggars,  Eta,  and  hi-nin  (not  human).  These  beings, 
were  not  in  the  census  or  counted  in  the  population. 
All  the  horses  and  most  of  the  dogs  seemed  to  have 
ppier  time  in  life  than  these  specimens  of  the 
homo. 

On  the  Tokaido,  on  my  way  to  Tokio,  I  first  met 
these  importunate  beggars.  They  were  diseased 
and  clamorous.  Wrapped  in  rags  and  matting,  they 
t  under  bridges  and  in  odd  shelters.  The  Eta 
in  houses  and  were  fairly  well-to-do.  Tliey 
Tved  at  the  town's  end.  Their  occupations  were  in 
handling,  the  tanning,  and  working  of  leather, 
aking  of  drums,  harness,  and  the  cobbling  of 
footgear.  They  served  in  prisons  and  on  execution 
grounds,  attended  to  the  removal  of  carcasses  and 
corpses,  and  performed  other  unpleasant  and  defiling 
tasks.  In  face  and  figure,  eyes  and  hair,  they  were 
way  different  from  the  Japanese  around  them. 
Fukui,  however,  I  found  it  difficult  to  get  my 
nts  or  other  native  friends  to  go  with  me  through 
Eta  quarter.  I  was  told  that  ordinarily  no  re- 
sj)ectable  citizen,  after  giving  food  or  drink  to  an  Eta, 
d  ever  touch  a  dish  or  cup  thus  defiled.  Several 
undred  Eta  lived  in  Fukui.  Among  the  girls  were 
pretty  faces  and  figures,  but  except  as  strolling 
singers  or  players  on  the  samisen,  I  never  saw  any  of 


¥m 


^si)ect 
^^nund 


110  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

these  people  in  the  temples  or  grounds,  at  the  picnics, 
or  pubKc  processions,  or  gatherings. 

It  was  in  Fukui  that  the  famous  reformer  Yokoi 
Heishiro,  the  William  Lloyd  Garrison  of  Japan, 
lived,  who  studied  the  condition  of  the  Eta,  pondered 
upon  their  elevation,  proposed  their  enfranchise- 
ment, and  finally  lost  his  life  as  a  martyr  to  the 
assassin's  sword  for  championing  the  freedom  of  the 
Eta  and  the  rights  of  conscience. 

In  crossing  the  main  island,  besides  the  beggars 
under  their  dirty  mats  or  clamoring  for  alms,  I  often 
saw  on  the  Tokaido  the  legally  non-human  '' clouds." 
These  homeless  men,  cast  out  of  society,  were  burden- 
bearers  for  travellers.  Many  were  inveterate  gam- 
blers. In  several  instances  I  saw  them  in  the  icy 
weather  stark  naked  and  shivering,  having  gambled 
away  every  stitch  of  clothing.  Probably  for  this 
persistent  vice  not  a  few  of  the  wretches  had  been 
run  out  of  society.  Before  hiring  them  as  palanquin- 
bearers,  I  bought  rice,  had  it  cooked,  and  saw  it 
deposited  inside  their  gullets,  before  trusting  myself 
with  them  on  the  night  journey.  They  started  at 
a  trot,  occasionally  stopping  to  light  a  fire  of  leaves 
and  brush  by  the  roadway  to  warm  their  hands  and 
cuticle.  Not  a  shred  of  clothing  was  visible  on  them, 
though  they  wrapped  themselves  in  matting  when 
not  at  work. 

In  Tokio,  apart  from  seeing  them  in  their  villages, 
I  met  again  some  Eta  at  their  hereditary  occupations 
within  the  great  prison  area.    They  served  at  or  near 


THE  HIGHEST  AND  THE  LOWEST  HI 

the  blood  pit,  into  which,  during  three  centuries, 
probably  ten  thousand  heads  had  fallen. 

Even  as  late  as  1870,  the  average  gentleman  would 
have  thought  no  more  of  cutting  down  one  of  this 
sort  of  legal  nonentity  than  he  would  a  dog.  I  used 
to  see  corpses  of  low-class  men  lying  un buried  on  the 
highway,  just  as  they  fell  under  the  blade  of  some 
drunken  or  bad-tempered  Samurai.  1  liave  seen 
beggars  allowed  to  drown  in  the  presence  of  those 
who  were  well  able  to  help  them.  The  only  answer 
or  explanation  to  my  incjuiries,  or  remonstrances  at 
allowing  a  human  being  to  drown,  was,  "Oh,  it's  only 
a  beggar."  The  numeral  used  in  counting  those 
people,  who  had  no  existence  in  law,  was  the  same  as 
that  used  for  animals.  It  was  difTicult  to  get  even  a 
servant  to  stay  in  the  room  where  an  Eta  woman, 
wounded  in  a  fusillade  at  Kobe,  was  being  treated 
by  an  English  doctor.  In  a  word,  the  Japanese  fear 
of  defilement  overcame  his  sense  of  pity  and  even 
of  humanity.  This  is  an  age-old  trait.  Even  to 
this  day  it  is  the  custom  after  a  funeral  to  sprinkle 
"the  blossom  of  the  waves"  (salt)  over  the  mourners, 
in  order  to  remove  all  sense  of  pollution. 

It  has  been  asserted  by  those  who  ascribe  a  larger 
infusion  than  evidence  permits  of  Nigrito  blood  in 
the  Japanese  composite,  that  these  Eta  were  "curly- 
haired  negroids,"  isolated  and  kept  out  of  the  nation 
on  account  of  their  foreign  origin.  Besides  repeatedly 
asserting  that  the  Japanese  dark  skin  comes  from 
negroid  blood,  they  have  attacked  the  claim  made 


112  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

by  the  writer  that  Mutsuhito's  act  in  1871  was  as 
morally  grand  as  Lincoln's  and  have  even  challenged 
the  existence  of  the  edict  exalting  the  Eta  and  the 
hi-nin  to  citizenship. 

The  text  of  this  document,  proclaimed  October, 
1871,  to  all  the  local  authorities  in  the  empire,  which 
did  for  Japan  what  the  ukase  of  Alexander  the 
Liberator  did  for  the  serfs  of  Russia  in  1861,  and 
Lincoln's  proclamation  of  1863  for  the  negroes  held 
in  slavery,  is  as  follows :  — 

''The  designation  of  Eta  and  hi-nin  are  abolished. 
Those  who  bore  them  are  to  be  added  to  the  general 
registers  of  the  population,  and  their  social  position 
and  methods  of  gaining  a  livelihood  are  to  be  identical 
with  the  rest  of  the  people.  As  they  have  been 
entitled  to  immunity  from  land-tax  and  other  burdens 
by  immemorial  custom,  you  will  inquire  how  this 
may  be  reformed,  and  report  to  the  board  of  Finance. 
(Signed)     "Council  of  State." 

The  daring  man  who  in  Kioto,  in  1869,  at  cost  of 
his  life  at  the  hands  of  assassins,  first  proposed  in  the 
Government  Council  the  elevation  of  the  Eta  to 
citizenship  was  Yokoi  Heishiro,  formerly  ethical 
teacher  and  adviser  of  my  employer,  the  Lord  of 
Echizen,  and  friend  of  the  Mazzini  of  Japan,  Hashi- 
moto Sanai.  ..  A  mighty  master  of  the  Oyomei 
Philosophy,  a  reader  of  the  New  Testament  (in  the 
Chinese  version),  he  sent  his  nephews  to  America  — 
the  first  of  a  continuing  host  of  students.     His  son 


Japar 


THE  HIGHEST  AND  THE  LOWEST  113 

is  the  brilliant  editor,  member  of  the  Diet,  and  his- 
torian of  the  Russo-Japanese  War.  When  war 
captains  are  less  prominent,  this  maker  of  the  New 
Japan  will  be  better  known  and  honored. 

w  many  outcasts  were  there  in  1871,  when  they 
were  lifted  up  to  citizenship  and  given  entrance  into 
Japanese  humanity,  by  being  named  in  the  registers, 
enrolled  in  th(^  population,  and  the  land  on  which 
they  lived  measured?  From  squatters  they  at  once 
became  taxpayers,  and  all  the  avenues  of  promotion 
were  at  once  opened  to  them.  They  entered  the 
schools,  army,  navy,  and  into  lines  of  achievement 
and  careers  of  promise.  Their  humanity  was  thus 
fully  recognized  before  the  law.  Abraham  Lincoln 
made  the  emancipation  of  slaves  in  the  Southern 
Confederacy  a  military  necessity.  In  what  respect 
wiis  the  act  of  the  American  President  morally  greater 

ll|  that  of  Mutsuhito  in  making  the  Eta  and  hi-nin 

Kan  ?    Very  curiously  the  first  envoys  of  the  Japan 
whose  citizens  were  all  reckoned  human  met  General 
,  ''the  first  president  of  the  free  republic"  that 
'ji(f  no  slaves,  at  Washington  on  March  4,  1872. 
hat  was  the  origin  of  these  classes  and  what  has 
1870  been  their  history  ?     Or,  even  more  happily, 

ive  they,  since  His  Gracious  Majesty  Mutsuhito 
freed  and  elevated  them,  had  no  history?  Have 
they  unnoticed,  entering  into  a  new  earthly  Nirvana, 
been  lost  felicitously  in  the  mass  of  the  Japanese 
people  ? 

The  total  number  of  Eta  when  they  were  made 


wuose 

mia  n 

nave 


114  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

hei-min,  and  the  ''New  Commoners,"  was  over 
200,000,  and  the  total  number  of  outcasts  of  all  sorts 
was  over  912,000,  or  nearly  a  milUon. 

I  believe  that  there  are  no  scientific  grounds  for 
supposing  that  the  Eta  or  hi-nin  were  "curly-haired 
negroids,"  or  "off skins"  of  any  kind,  or  that  they 
were  extra-ethnic  in  origin.  All  tradition,  even  with 
its  thousand  discordant  tongues,  refers  their  origin 
to  ancestors  who  were  traitors,  criminals,  assassins, 
feeders  of  the  Imperial  falcons  (Etori),  of  the  guild 
of  skinners  and  leather-workers,  or  Korean  or  Mongol 
prisoners;  yet  even  where  popular  notions  disagree, 
history  has  a  unity.  Let  us  look  at  its  mirror  in  the 
Chronicles. 

When  Buddhism,  a.d.  552,  came  into  Japan,  a 
pubUc  sentiment  was  created  against  butchers, 
furnishers  of  flesh  food,  and  all  who  handled  corpses 
or  their  skins,  or  wrought  in  leather.  Such  persons 
would  naturally  soon  fall  under  ban,  and  be  reckoned 
as  belonging  to  the  service  of  the  dead,  and  therefore 
hi-nin,  or  outside  of  society. 

Yet  even  before  this  time,  we  have  what  is  probably 
the  origin  of  the  pariah  caste,  in  the  record  dated 
A.D.  485,  5th  month:  "Karabukuro  no  Sukune, 
Lord  (Kimi)  of  Mount  Sasaki,  who  was  implicated 
in  the  assassination  of  the  Imperial  Prince  Oshiha, 
when  about  to  be  executed,  bowed  down  his  head  to 
the  ground,  and  his  words  expressed  extreme  sorrow. 
The  Empei^or  could  not  bear  to  put  him  to  death,  so 
he  added  him  to  the  misasagi  guardians  (or  keepers 


THE  HIGHEST  AND  THE  LOWEST  115 

of  tombs  or  places  of  the  dead),  making  him  at  the 
same  time  mountain  warden  (game  keeper),  and 
erasing  his  name  from  the  census  registers.  He  was 
then  handed  over  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  village 
master  of  Yamabe."    The  italics  are  ours. 

Without  accepting  the  date  as  exact,  we  have  iiere 
in  all  probability  the  story  of  at  least  one  of  the 
ancestors  of  the  outcast  class.  Uncounted  in  the 
census  and  otherwise  outside  the  pale  of  humanity, 
these  people  were  nevertheless  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  local  magistrates.  Each  of  the  imperial  tombs 
or  dolmens  had  from  one  to  five  houses  of  watchers 
allotted  to  it. 

Having  seen  these  people  at  close  range  and  in 
many  parts  of  Japan,  I  could  connote  no  extra-ethnic 
origin  but  a  caste,  which  arose  out  of  the  political 
edicts  and  ecclesiastical  bans  in  early  days.  They 
were  descendants  of  traitors  and  criminals  who  were 
dropped  out  of  the  registers  of  population.  Argu- 
nunts  for  their  origin  drawn  from  early  Buddhist 
art  are  not  convincing.  The  typical  Buddha,  though 
apparently  curly-headed,  is  meant  to  be  pure  Aryan 
in  origin,  and  the  facial  type  is  not  ''negroid."  In- 
deed, the  hair  is  not  all  represented,  nor  could  be. 
Buddha  as  a  monk  was  shorn.  The  artist,  in  the 
supposed  ''curliness,"  shows  the  coiled  snails  of  the 
legend  which  tells  how  these  moist,  cool  mollusks,  by 
crawling  on  the  smooth  cranium  of  the  meditative 
sage,  kept  him  from  being  sunstruck.  The  so-called 
''curly-headed"  Buddha  has  also  been  confounded 


116  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

with  the  demon  of  matted  hair,  which  in  far-away 
Africa  furnished  the  original  of  the  tar  baby  in  Brer 
Rabbit's  story;  the  hare  being  an  Asiatic  ''Brer," 
in  Buddhist  legend,  before  being  imported  into  Africa 
or  across  the  Atlantic.  There  are  830  ''curls/'  each 
nine  inches  high  and  eleven  wide  at  the  base,  on  the 
Dai  Butsu,  or  Great  Buddha  at  Kamakura. 

The  elevation  of  the  Japanese  outcasts  to  citizenship 
was  far  more  important  a  step  in  the  evolution  of  the 
Japanese  nation  than,  possibly,  even  the  war  with 
China,  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  abohshed  caste 
forever.  So  long  as  such  a  thing  existed,  that  some 
subjects  of  the  Mikado,  though  of  the  same  race,  were 
beneath  humanity,  the  grounds  of  the  Japanese 
claim  to  social  equality  were  preposterous.  Freedom 
for  one  class  meant  progress  for  all. 

In  business,  many  of  the  New  Commoners  have 
won  notable  success.  Fortune  attends  the  butchers, 
contractors,  and  shoe  manufacturers.  In  the  army 
none  show  nobler  discipline  or  steadier  valor  than 
their  sons.  General  Kuroki,  whose  hand  I  shook 
in  New  York  in  May,  1907,  while  bearing  witness  to 
the  soldierly  qualities  of  the  conscripts  of  Eta  descent, 
prophesies  that  the  dislike  of  some  who  are  comrades 
in  the  ranks  to  mess  with  them  will  pass  away. 
Happily  for  quick  solution  of  the  problem  there  is 
no  color  line.  There  is  nothing  in  the  known  history 
or  physical  or  mental  status  of  a  descendant  of  an 
Eta  that  should  exclude  him  from  naturalization  in 
any  modern  Christian  nation. 


Gknkral  Kuroki 


THE  HIGHEST  AND  THE  LOWEST  117 

ren  yet,  however,  many  people  in  Europe  and 
America  have  not  awakened  to  the  situation.  There 
are  not  even  any  ''coolies"  in  Japan  —  in  the  sense 
of  caste.  All  are  free  before  the  law.  The  poorest 
boy  in  the  land  may  become  Prime  Minister.  The 
Jajmnese  Government  will  never  make  a  treaty  which 
excludes  their  people  from  ecjual  rights  and  privi- 
leges with  all  nationalities,  even  of  the  most  favored 
nation.  No  cabinet  in  Tokio  could  hold  power  a 
year  that  would  consent  to  such  a  compact  discrimi- 
nating against  the  Japanese.  One  by  one,  the  rea- 
sonable barriers  against  the  privilege  of  naturalization 
in  other  lands  are  being  removed.  The  Japanese  will 
command  success  in  this,  as  in  other  fields  of  achieve- 
ment, by  deserving  it.  To  deny  a  Japanese  naturali- 
zation in  the  United  States  savors  of  snobbery,  and 
no  rational  argument  against  granting  a  gentleman 
from  Japan  the  same  privilege  so  freely  accorded  to 
Europeans  of  every  grade  and  ethnic  stock  has  yet 
been  advanced. 

Although  in  this  work,  on  ''The  Japanese  Nation 
in  Evolution,"  we  have  not  hesitated  to  expose  the 
facts  of  history  and  the  whole  truth  concerning  the 
Japanese,  from  gods  to  beggars,  from  Mikado  to 
pariah,  yet  we  do  not  forget  the  lowly  origin  of  our 
own  Indo-Germanic  fathers  in  Europe.  Slavery, 
serfdom,  ignorance,  illiteracy,  the  welter  of  savagery, 
barbarism,  feudalism,  were  theirs ;  but  they  reached 
order,  law,  and  freedom.  They,  too,  rose  out  of 
mythology,  superstition,  nursery  and  fairy  tales  into 


118  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

science,  philosophy,  reformed  religion,  and  civilization. 
By  comparison  with  Europe,  there  is  little  that  need 
make  a  Japanese  ashamed ;  in  his  continuance  in  the 
path  of  enlightenment,  duty,  increasing  purity  in 
morals,  life,  religion,  there  is  every  hope  of  Japan 
becoming  one  of  the  greatest  nations  in  all  history. 
Not  only  her  incomparable  geographical  situation, 
but  her  inheritances  and  her  opportunity  point  to 
this  triumph.  Nevertheless,  she  is  not  yet  perfect, 
and  there  is  one  thing  needful.  Neither  a  communal 
civilization,  nor  an  imperfect  sense  of  personality, 
nor  a  lack  of  discernment  of  the  Unity  that  per- 
vades all  can,  in  the  long  run,  compete  successfully 
with  that  civilization  which  is  instinct  with  the  fullest 
individual  freedom,  with  a  deep  sense  of  the  worth  of 
humanity,  and,  above  all,  with  a  clear  perception  of 
One,  or  What,  that  is  higher,  even,  than  impersonal 
law. 


CHAPTER  Vm 


THE   ARYAN   RELIGION 


^^|P^^  living  soul  of  Japan  is  her  art.  Understand- 
ing this,  we  know  at  once  the  religion  and  the  joy 
of  her  children.  The  scholarly  minority  follows 
Confucius.  The  overwhelming  majority  in  the  na- 
tional household  find  consolation  and  hope  in  the 
Buddha. 

It  is  not  our  purpose  in  this  brief  chapter  to  set 
in  detail  the  Aryan  faith,  called  Buddhism, 
oiice  the  mightiest  unifier  of  Asia,  in  either  its  lofty 
and  abstruse  form  or  in  its  lower  and  popular  mani- 
festations. This  we  have  essayed  to  do  in  the  volume 
entitled  "The  Religions  of  Japan."  Here  we  shall 
treat  of  the  artistic  and  humanizing  influences  of 
Buddhism  in  the  evolution  of  the  Japanese  people. 
No  other  element  has  been  so  potent  in  the  making 
of  the  nation.  Mikadoism  rests  on  the  sword ;  Shinto 
is  the  national  memory.  Buddhism  is  the  heart  of 
Japan.    The  Japanese  are  more  Aryan  than  Chinese. 

The  great  faith,  according    as    it    laid    emphasis 

on_the  idea  of  the  impersonal  Divine  and  vision  of 

Eternal,  or  on  the  personal  Divine  as  manifested 

he  human  life  of  Sakya  Muni,  divided  into  the 

Northern  and  Southern  schools,  or  the  Greater  and 

"~  119 


120  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

the  Lesser  Vehicle.  In  the  latter,  the  attainment  of 
Nirvana,  or  freedom  from  passion,  is  the  goal ;  in  the 
other,  it  is  but  a  starting-point  of  a  greater  develop- 
ment. 

'*  Buddha  commanded  that  his  law  should  flow 
eastward,"  hence  the  course  of  his  missionaries.  Yet 
Buddhism,  even  as  the  Chinese  received  it,  was  not 
a  defined  and  formulated  creed,  so  much  as  it  was 
a  vast  synthesis  of  Hindu  thought  received  by  a 
foreign  consciousness.  Mongolian  China  was  fertilized 
by  the  Aryan  brain  and  heart.  Instead  of  its  entrance 
being  an  isolated  event,  thousands  of  missionaries 
from  India  visited  China  and  lived  there,  spreading 
the  doctrines  of  Buddha  by  voice  and  by  pen.  In 
art,  architecture,  and  translation,  they  made  Buddha's 
laws  of  spiritual  freedom  known.  Vast  was  the 
alteration  in  the  landscape  of  the  Middle  Kingdom 
with  rock  sculpture,  wall-painting,  the  inward  glory 
of  splendid  temples,  and  the  appealing  wayside 
shrine.  Then,  in  refluent  waves,  hundreds  of  Chinese 
youth  went  to  India  to  study  in  the  mother-land  of 
the  faith. 

Buddhism  had  reached  the  monastic  stage  when  it 
came  to  Japan,  to  uplift  a  people  already  educated  in 
love  of  beauty  and  sensitive  to  art  influences.  There 
were  already  Korean  monks  and  nuns  jn  Yaniato 
previous  to  the  golden  image,  tlie  temple  tapestries, 
and  the  mystic  scriptures  sent  from  Kudara  in  Korea, 
A.D.  552,  which  were  shown  in  the  Mikado's  presence 
as  part  of  the  ''tribute." 


Lilt;  a 

enem 
^imagc 

■Pr 

Decor 


THE  ARYAN  RELIGION  121 

t  date  is  the  hinge  of  an  aeon.  The  Mikado 
had  not  power  to  accept  or  reject.  He  was  the 
patriarchal  make-weight  between  the  rival  clans  — 
Soga  on  the  one  hand,  Manobe  and  Nakatomi  on  the 
other.  He  intrusted  the  gifts  to  Iname  of  Soga. 
Calamities  visited  the  land.  They  were  ascribed  to 
the  anger  of  the  gods  at  the  presence  of  an  alien 
In  a  riot  of  wrath,  with  fire  and  water,  the 
ies  of  Soga  hurnod  the  sutras,  and  tossed  the 
image  into  a  pond. 

t  the  doctrine  was  fireproof.  Iname's  son, 
ecoming  prime  minister,  built  temples,  and  his  clan 
;e  staunch  upholders  of  Buddhism.  Nominations 
e  throne  were  made  on  the  basis  of  creed,  and 
in~593,  after  terrific  factional  struggles,  in  which  a 
do  was  assassinated,  the  empress  Suiko  mounted 
throne.  Her  prime  minister  was  the  prince 
canonized  as  Shotoku,  or  Holy  Goodness  (572-621), 
who  as  pupil  sat  at  the  feet  of  Eji,  a  Korean  monk. 
As  scholar,  commentator,  preacher,  lawgiver,  artist, 
ed  the  faith  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  made 
worship  of  ''Pitiless  Fate"  or  "the  Absolute" 
an  inspiration.  His  code  of  laws,  or  rather  moral 
precepts,  issued  in  604,  in  seventeen  articles,  was  the 
first  written  ''constitution"  known  in  the  islands. 
Then  at  Asuka,  twelve  miles  south  of  Nara,  —  now  a 
overgrown  with  mulberry  trees.  —  he  built 
emples,  and  there  bloomed  in  splendor  the  first 
exotics  of  Buddhist  art.  With  the  aid  of  a  Soga 
noble,  he  wrote  two  historical  works.    As  propagator 


I, 

59; 
^1 


^^xemT 


122  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

of  Buddhism,  Shotoku  is  one  of  the  grandest  figures 
in  Japan's  national  evolution.  He  died  when  but 
forty-nine  years  old,  but  already  there  were  in  Japan 
46  temples,  820  priests,  and  560  nuns.  It  was  Sho- 
toku who  sent  the  first  embassy  to  China  and  adopted 
the  Chinese  calendar. 

A  few  temples  and  statues  remain  at  Asuka  — 
famous  in  poetry  from  the  silent  ages  past,  but  it  is 
to  Nara  that  we  must  hie,  to  enjoy  the  glorious  art, 
which  is  rich  in  that  intense  refinement  and  purity 
such  as  only  great  rehgious  feeling  can  produce. 

So  vivifying  was  the  touch  of  the  Aryan  intellect, 
as  expressed  in  the  cult  of  Buddha,  that  at  once  a 
great  school  of  native  sculpture  sprang  up,  and  a 
circle  and  succession  of  poets,  led  by  Utomaro,  sang. 
Artists  in  the  joy  of  achievement  made  temple  scenes 
of  ravishing  splendor,  filled  Yamato  with  beauty, 
and  began  to  create  that  appealing  landscape,  which 
binds  the  native  in  rapturous  loyalty  to  the  very  soil 
itself. 

In  this  wonderful  Asian  era,  in  the  forelands  of 
India,  China,  Korea,  and  Japan,  mighty  events 
stirred  the  nations,  now  one  in  the  garden  of  Buddha- 
dom.  China  was  unified  in  the  brilliant  Tang  dynasty. 
Korea  shook  off  the  yoke  of  the  island  conqueror  andT 
became  free.  \  In  Japan,  the  Mikado  Tenchi  (668- 
671),  who  had  slain  Soga  of  Ainu  name,  and  led  in  the 
revolution  of  645,  replaced  clanhlsm  by  estabhshing 
the  throne  in  new  power.i  In  India,  this  was  an  age 
of  science,  which  was  to  fertilize  all  the  East.  Buddhist 


THE  ARYAN  RELIGION 


123 


came  the  vehicle  of  this  new  knowledge  by  ex- 
pressing the  mastery  of  mind  over  matter  in  images 
of  calm.  At  Lo  Yang,  the  Chinese  capital,  three 
thousand  Hindu  monks  and  ten  thousand  families 
from  India  gathered,  having  among  their  students 
scores  of  young  Japanese.  With  their  own  letters 
and  alphabets  as  models,  they  taught  the  phonetic 
values  of  the  Chinese  ideographs,  which,  in  modified 
forms  and  later  evolution,  meant  alphabets  for  every 
written  language  in  eastern  Asia,  not  excepting  Japan. 
Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  not  long  after,  some  of  the 
women  at  Court,  and  even  the  common  people 
throughout  Mikado-land,  were  able  to  see  their  own 
speech  in  the  writing  of  epistle,  book,  and  proclama- 
tion. 

Tolerance  and  harmony  in  China  were  to  bear  fruit 
fcipan's  national  evolution.  Many  faiths,  cults, 
ann  philosophies  dwelt  together  in  mutually  fructify- 
ing nearness,  during  this  Hinduizing  of  Chinese 
thought.  Out  of  these  conditions  sprang  a  triple 
harvest  of  mind  and  feeling:  first,  that  threefold 
on  of  China  composed  of  Confucianism,  Taoism, 
Buddhism,  which  makes  unity  in  the  mind  of 
the  average  man  in  the  Middle  Kingdom;  second, 
that  trinity  of  doctrines,  Shinto,  Confucianism,  and 
Buddhism,  which  is  the  ancestral  faith,  one  and 
indivisible,  of  the  Japanese  peasants  and  city-folk; 
and  third,  that  neo-Confucianism,  synthesis  of  all 
previous  Chinese  thought,  as  modified  by  Taoism 
gind  Buddhism,  which,  in  the  twelfth  century,  was 


^Tg^ 


124  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

wrought  into  shape  by  Chu-hi.  This  latter  product 
of  the  Chinese  mind  has  furnished  the  creed  of  gentle- 
men in  China  and  in  all  her  pupil  nations. 

Happily,  too,  for  Japan,  the  young  men  despatched 
from  her  shores  were  privileged  to  sit  at  the  feet  of 
such  teachers  as  Gensho  (Hiouen-Tsang),  and  to 
bathe  their  souls  in  the  streams  of  science  that  flowed 
from  India  like  a  fertilizing  flood.  Monism,  or 
complete  harmony  in  union  of  mind  and  matter, 
was  the  goal  sought.  The  whole  universe  was  to  be 
seen  by  the  mind's  eye  of  him  who  felt  that  in  Lord 
Buddha  all  things  consist.  This  Buddhist  doctrine 
of  the  pleroma,  when  bodied  forth  in  Japan  as  sculp- 
ture, took  on  almost  Egyptian  proportions  and  forms 
of  calm.  The  sects  which  especially  taught  the  new 
phases  of  northern  Buddhism,  or  the  great  Vehicle, 
were  the  Hosso  and  Kegon.  In  their  teachings, 
Buddha  is  the  centre  of  the  universe. 

This  is  the  idea  incorporated  in  the  colossal  images 
of  Buddha  in  Japan.  The  various  Daibutsu  (Great 
Buddha)  belong  to  one  or  other  of  the  trinity  of  Law, 
Mercy,  and  Humanity.  In  place  of  the  colossal 
rock  sculptures  of  China,  the  unified  genius  of  Japan 
expressed  itself  in  those  masses  of  bronze,  compared 
to  which,  in  size,  the  world  knows  no  peer.  Yet  to  the 
towering  bronze  statues  it  added  a  beauty  superior 
to  that  known  in  either  India  or  China.  Nara  reared 
the  largest  image,  with  a  stature  unmatched  in  the 
world.  After  being  twice  at  the  top  melted  in  fire 
and  repaired,  in  a  decadent  age  nearly  a  thousand 


THE  ARYAX  RELIGIOX  125 

years  after  its  uprearing,  we  must  not  judge  its  pres- 
ent features  too  severely.  It  is  the  Roshana  Buddha 
of  Law  as  contrasted  to  the  Buddha  of  Mercy. 

The  new  religion  had  an  instant  and  powerful 
effect  in  giving  solidity  to  Government.  Coming 
in  to  alter  the  world  view  of  things,  to  teach  crema- 
tion instead  of  burial,  to  make  of  the  hut  a  home, 
cooperating  moreover  with  Chinese  ideas  of  costume 
and  eticjuette,  to  show  the  beauty  of  order  and  the 
joy  of  permanency,  Buddhism  called  a  halt  to  the 
nomadic  life.  Tlie  old  ''itineracy  seemed  both  out 
of  date  and  out  of  joint  with  the  times." 

A  wonderful  transformation  of  ideas,  customs,  and 
manners  began  in  the  Mikado-city.  The  men  of  peace, 
of  letters,  of  religion,  and  of  civil  routine  came  in. 
The  men  of  war,  except  those  of  the  garrison  and 
palace  guards,  went  off  to  the  frontier.  This  was  the 
golden  age  of  the  costumer,  the  writing-master,  the 
copier  of  the  sutras,  the  professor,  the  lecturer,  the 
artist,  and  the  architect.  The  whole  Court  and 
so(uety  at  the  capital  entered  the  new  world  of  art, 
and  rambled  in  the  garden  of  Aryan  doctrine.  As 
in  the  nineteenth  century,  the  wonders  of  the  material 
civilization  of  the  Occident  and  the  world  of  har- 
nessed cosmic  forces  lured  the  Nipponese,  so  in  the 
eighth  century  they  entered  the  treasure  house  of  art, 
enjoying  the  splendors  of  painting  and  carving,  and 
the  glory  of  costume.  They  soared  into  the  ravishing 
world  of  Chinese  philosophy  and  dogma,  as  well  as 
of  Aryan  ethics  and  Hindu  speculations. 


126  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

It  was  really  a  double  wave,  a  flood  of  two  civiliza- 
tions that  rolled  into  Japan,  swamping  for  a  time  at 
least  all  native  originality  and  arresting  the  island 
evolution  already  a  thousand  years  old.  In  the 
celestial  glories  of  the  visions  of  the  Mahayana,  the 
kindling  genius  of  Japan  revelled.  Hundreds  and 
thousands  gathered  under  the  trees  in  the  gardens 
or  halls,  and  in  the  new  grand  temples,  to  hear  the 
doctrine  expounded,  or  to  listen  to  the  reading  of  the 
sutras.  Brilhant  and  learned  teachers,  fresh  from 
China  or  Korea,  entranced  their  auditors  with  truths 
for  which  the  hungry  had  long  waited.  Among 
scores  of  such  records,  we  can  copy  from  the  Chroni- 
cles but  one  or  two.  In  a.d.  696,  11th  month,  10th 
day,  ''An  Imperial  order  was  given  that  the  Kin- 
kwo-myo  Sutra  should  be  expounded,  and  that  every 
year  on  the  last  day  of  the  twelfth  month,  ten  persons 
of  a  pure  life  should  be  made  to  enter  religion." 

In  A.D.  697,  6th  month,  6th  day,  ''An  Imperial 
order  was  made  that  sutras  should  be  read  in  the 
temples  of  the  Home  Provinces." 

As  the  empress  Jito  (a.d.  687-697)  drew  near  her 
end,  the  ministers  and  public  functionaries  began  to 
make  native  images  of  Buddha  for  the  relief  of  the 
empress's  illness. 

The  very  bulk  of  the  new  scriptures  of  Northern 
Buddhism,  or  The  Larger  Vehicle,  was  in  itself 
imposing.  A  thousand  years  later,  two  carts  were 
necessary  to  carry  a  copy  of  the  Buddhist  canon  to 
the  British  Legation  in  Tokio.    The  copy  presented 


THE  ARYAN  RELIGION  127 

by  the  premier  Iwakura  reached  London  in  many 
bulky  boxes  which  to-day  fill  rods,  poles,  and  perches 
of  shelving.  To  copy  out  these  works  of  origins, 
homilies,  logia,  the  Lord  Buddha's  table  talk,  the 
writings  of  his  disciples,  the  gorgeous  rhetoric  of 
the  Saddharma  Pundarika  (Lotus  of  the  Good  Law), 
the  florid  fancies  of  Tibetans,  and  the  fruits  of  Chinese 
scholasticism,  was  a  task  requiring  hundreds  of 
scribes.  Daily  with  battalions  of  brush  pens  before 
the  inkstones,  with  knees  on  the  mat  and  elbow  pads 
on  their  low  tables,  the  penmen  sat,  doing  their  holy 
and  educational  work. 

Thus  speak  again  the  Chronicles.  In  .\.d.  073,  ''  In 
this  [third]  month  scribes  were  brought  together  who 
i)egan  to  copy  out  the  Issaiko  (Tripitaka)  in  the  temple 
of  Kahara." 

"Messengers  were  despatched  in  all  directions  to 
seek  for  the  Issaiko." 

"A  great  feast  of  the  Buddhist's  fare  was  given  at 
the  Asuka  temple,  at  which  the  Issaiko  was  read." 

At  Fukui  in  1871,  I  attended  one  of  these  religious 
conventions  and  popular  festivals,  which  are  still 
kept  up,  as  described  in  ''The  Mikado's  Empire," 
p.  538. 

This  tremendous  outburst  of  fresh  zeal  lasted  many 
yca,rs.  With  many  ''persons  of  pure  life,"  without 
distinction  of  age  or  sex  "renouncing  the  world" 
and  "entering  religion,"  provision  must  be  made 
for  their  housing  and  sustenance.  They  must 
eat  and  be  clothed,  while  others  must  do  manual 


128  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

labor.  Monasticism  in  Japan  was  like  the  sudden 
opening  of  a  lotus  when  morning  light  unfolds  its 
pink  petals,  and  the  dewdrops  on  its  basin-leaves 
turn  into  gems.  Beginning  in  Yamato,  the  monas- 
teries and  nunneries  spread  over  the  country  until, 
in  their  millennial  march,  they  could  be  counted  by 
the  thousands.  Keeping  pace  with  temple  and 
cloister  were  the  tremendous  activities  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  empresses  in  propagating  Buddhism 
among  the  people.  Images,  pagodas,  mural  paintings, 
were  the  permanent  memorials,  acting  as  pulpits  for 
the  constant  preaching  of  the  new  doctrines.  Millions 
of  tokens  in  metal,  on  wood  and  paper,  and  pictures  — 
the  scripture  for  the  illiterate  —  brought  the  new 
gospel  into  every  home.  Incredible  seems  the  earnest- 
ness of  these  early  missionaries. 

Asuka  and  Nara  saw  the  era  of  masculine  vigor  in 
Buddhism,  as  compared  with  the  feminine  delicacy 
and  sentimentalism  of  the  later  Kioto  and  Fujiwara 
period.  Notwithstanding  that  Nara  has  shrunk 
to  one-tenth  of  its  former  size,  there  are  yet  to-day 
temples,  art  monuments,  sculpture,  arid  paintings 
that  thrill  the  student  of  art  and  religion.  Bishop 
Phillips  Brooks  told  me  in  Boston,  on  his  return  from 
Japan,  after  visiting  most  of  t'he  world's  consecrated 
sites,  that  he  had  seen  no  holy  place  on  earth  which 
had  so  moved  his  soul  as  Nara.  Here  yet  abides  the 
Imperial  Treasure  House,  built  a.d.  756  in  the  en- 
closure of  the  Todaiji  temple,  which  for  over  a  thou- 
sand years  has  escaped  fire,  flood,  war,  and  earthquake. 


THE  ARYAN  RELIGION  129 

Opened  only  by  Imperial  permission  once  in  each 
reign,  to  certain  persons  of  high  rank,  even  mighty 
war  lords,  yes,  even  Yoritomo  and  lyeyasu,  have 
submitted  to  this  formality,  and  in  awe  they  have 
gazed  on  a  museum  that  for  archaeological  value  has 
no  counterpart  in  Asia.  In  Japan  alone,  after  the 
Mongol  flood  in  China  and  India,  can  historic  wealth 
of  Asiatic  culture  be  studied  through  its  treasured 
specimens.  Here  are  the  personal  belongings  of 
Shomu,  who  called  himself  "slave  of  the  trinity" 
(Buddha,  Law,  and  Church),  and  his  consort  Komio, 
which  reveal  the  details  of  the  daily  life  of  twelve 
hundred  years  ago.  At  Nara  is  "the  highest  formal 
expression  of  the  second  Asiatic  thought." 

It  is  one  of  the  miracles  of  history,  that  in  one  of 
the  smallest  lands  on  earth  should  rise  the  largest 
bronze  casting  in  the  world.  The  great  Roshana 
Buddha  of  Boundless  Light  at  Nara  rose  into  being 
under  the  enthusiasm  of  Giogi,  the  priest  returned 
from  China.  He  first  interested  the  sovereign  and  his 
empress  in  the  mighty  enterprise.  Then  he  travelled 
over  the  domain  announcing  the  Imperial  will  that 
each  peasant  should  add  his  handful  of  clay  and  wisp 
of  grass.  At  the  making  of  the  mighty  core  and 
mould,  court  ladies  carried  clay  for  the  model  on  their 
silken  sleeves.  After  the  successful  casting  came  the 
rel(;ase  and  cleansing  of  the  figure  to  receive  its  final 
mantle  of  splendor,  for  when  the  mountain  of  bronze 
had  been  reared,  twenty  thousand  pounds  of  gold 
were  needed  to  cover  it  with  a  shining  garment  of 


130  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

the  precious  metal.  On  the  nimbus  or  halo,  three 
hundred  golden  statues  were  hung.  Happily  for 
all,  the  Hindu  monk,  Bodhi,  arrived  from  India  in 
time  for  the  ceremonies  of  inauguration.  The  next 
day  Giogi,  his  life  work  completed,  passed  away  into 
the  Invisible. 

Over  three  centuries  later,  Yoritomo,  founder  of 
the  new  city  in  the  East,  was  inspired  by  this  master- 
piece of  art  to  attempt  the  rearing  of  a  similar  image 
near  the  sparkling  waves  of  the  Pacific. 

The  object-lessons  of  Nara,  in  the  seven  temples, 
vieing  with  each  other  in  gorgeous  splendor,  were  not 
lost  on  the  nation  at  large.  All  over  the  land,  the 
mining  of  copper  and  gold,  the  melting  and  pouring 
of  the  fiery  flood  of  metal  for  permanent  symbols, 
the  rearing  of  temples,  monasteries,  and  nunneries, 
revealed  the  amazing  enthusiasm  and  activity  that 
told  mightily  in  artistic  education  and  on  social  evolu- 
tion. Japanese  history  shows  no  other  force  com- 
parable to  Buddhism  for  the  welding  into  one  nation 
of  the  various  tribes  of  the  archipelago. 

Yet  even  granting  all  honor  and  bestowing  the 
full  meed  of  credit  upon  Buddhism  as  a  civilizer  and 
nation-builder,  we  must  not  for  a  moment  forget  either 
the  ethics  or  the  literary  power  of  the  Chinese  civili- 
zation. Nor  should  we  fail  to  remember  that  the 
Chinese  script,  moulds  of  thought,  and  models  of  ex- 
pression formed  the  vehicle  for  the  importation  and 
propagation  of  the  faith  that  was  to  lead  captive  for  a 
thousand  years  the  heart  and  mind  of  the  Japanese. 


THE  ARYAN  RELIGION  131 

is  accident  of  borrowing  Chinese  writings  and 
"moHels  —  the  latter  to  be  invariable  and  persistently 
de-Chinesed  in  modifications  numberless  —  was  a 
mere  matter  of  environment  and  geography.  Had 
the  early  Nipponese  come  into  contact  with  any 
manifestly  superior  civilization,  as  Assyrian,  Egyptian, 
Roman,  Greek,  they  would,  as  folk  perennially  eager 
for  culture,  have  accepted  it  —  to  modify  as  we  have 
done,  to  transform  as  they  have  done.  The  unchang- 
ing trait  in  a  Japanese  is  to  covet  things  better  and 
ever  to  seek  a  more  excellent  way.  He  fears  not  to 
be  inconsistent.  He  owns  up  when  he  sees  himself 
wrong.     In  1808,  the  whole  nation  made  confession 

jTts,  even  to  revolution.  They  are  still  on  the 
'sTc)"ol  of  repentance,  ever  praying  for  the  new  mind. 
''We  Japanese,"  wrote  the  brain  of  the  Japanese 
army,  the  lamented  General  and  Chief  of  Staff 
Kodama,  only  a  fortnight  before  his  death,  to  the 
writer,  ''do  not  fear  criticism;  we  welcome  it  most 
searchingly,  provided  it  is  just." 

At  the  first  presentation  to  them,  the  Japanese 
accepted  an  Aryan  religion.  Buddhism,  and  made 
it  their  own.  A  thousand  years  later,  in  the  age  of 
the  papal  dogma  which  set  forth  that  half  the  world, 
Japan  included,  was  the  ])rivate  property  of  the  King 
of  Spain,  Christianity,  in  the  garments  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion, entered  Japan.  Its  simple  truths  were  wrapped 
in  metaphysics  grown  in  southern  Europe.  It  is 
easy  to  see  why  the  Japanese,  after  their  first  expe- 
rience of  political  Christianity,  rejected  and  banned 


132  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

''the  accursed  sect"  for  centuries;  for,  first  of  all, 
the  Japanese  are  patriotic.  In  our  day,  reconsidering 
their  past  experiences,  they  are  giving  generous 
welcome  to  ''the  Jesus  religion"  in  every  manifesta- 
tion of  it,  whether  Greek,  Roman,  or  Reformed. 
So  far  as  the  religious  emissaries  from  the  Occident 
preach  Christianity  as  something  wholly  new,  and 
therefore  destructive  of  the  old  inheritances  of  the 
Japanese,  will  be  their  failure.  So  far  as  they  pro- 
claim it  in  the  Master's  spirit  —  "not  to  destroy, 
but  to  fulfil"  —  will  their  success  be  signal. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    POLITICAL   REVOLUTION    OF   A.D.    645 

E  Soga  clansmen  were  the  virtual  rulers  of  Japan 
(luring  the  most  of  the  Asuka  period  (a,d.  570-G45). 
They  claimed  descent  from  the  Japanese  Methusaleh, 
Takenouchi,  whose  age  is  variously  given  at  283,  300, 
and  390  years,  the  prime  minister  of  Queen  Jingu 
in  legend  ''invaded  Korea."  Hence  they 
were  a  sort  of  hereditary  ministers  of  foreign  affairs, 
ally  they  inclined  to  things  foreign  as  against 
nservatives  and  sticklers  for  what  was  native, 
mce,  also,  their  partiality  for  Buddhism,  the 
imported  religion.  They  set  up  and  dethroned  mi- 
kados  at  their  pleasure.  Opposed  to  them  in  rivalry 
were  the  Monobe  and  Nakatomi  clans.  The  four 
S(>gas  most  famous  were  I  name  (who  died  in  570), 
Umako,  Emishi,  and  Iruka. 

ring  the  reign  of  the  Mikado  Jomei  (629-041) 
no  Oho-omi  was  made  Dai-Jin,  or  Prime 
Minister.  Of  his  birth  or  origin,  or  the  reason  of 
king  the  personal  name  of  Yemishi,  or  Ainu, 
adding  it  to  his  clan  name  Soga,  we  know  little. 
So  unusual  a  proceeding  makes  it  at  least  possible  to 
believe  that  he  may  have  been  of  Ainu  origin,  possibly 

133 


^fwac 


134  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

one  of  the  many  thousands  of  offspring  of  Ainu  women 
by  Yamato  men.  Or,  perhaps,  he  took  or  got  the 
name  because  he  and  his  relatives  and  retainers, 
owning  vast  estates  toward  the  sunrising,  had  much 
to  do  with  the  government  of  the  Eastern  Provinces. 

When  the  Prince  Imperial  died  and  no  successor 
was  as  yet  settled,  this  man  of  Ainu  name  wished  to 
decide  the  matter  of  heirship  on  his  own  authority. 
Having  previously  sounded  his  nephew,  he  assembled 
the  ministers  of  the  Court  at  his  house.  The  debate 
showed  that  they  could  not  agree  on  an  heir.  After 
various  intrigues  and  negotiations,  too  long  to  be 
detailed  here,  the  imperial  seal  was  offered  to  Prince 
Tamura,  by  Soga  Emishi,  the  Daijin,  and  on  the 
4th  day,  1st  month,  a.d.  629,  Prince  Tamura  assumed 
the  Imperial  dignity. 

During  the  process  of  this  business  of  emperor- 
making,  there  was  a  great  gathering  of  all  the  kins- 
men of  the  Soga  house  to  build  a  dolmen  for  Shime 
no  Oho-omi,  but  the  work  was  interrupted.  The  huts 
were  pulled  down  by  one  Mirise,  who  then  retired  to 
a  Soga  farm-house  and  would  do  no  official  duty. 
The  Daijin  was  angry  and  remonstrated  with  him  as 
an  elder  brother  would  with  a  younger. 

Months  and  years  passed  by.  Envoys  with  offer- 
ings from  the  Korean  states  came  and  went,  and 
students  were  sent  to  and  returned  from  China. 
Relations  with  Great  Tang  increased  in  importance. 
At  Osaka,  when  the  Chinese  embassy  arrived,  twenty- 
six  gayly  decked  boats  with  music  went  out  to  meet 


^jL" 


w 

i 


:E  political  revolution  of  ad.  645    135 

and  welcome  them.  Then  duly  appointed  officers 
escorted  the  visitors  to  the  door  of  the  Prime  Minister's 
official  residence.  Others  invited  the  strangers  within 
and  offered  them  the  sacred  sake,  made  from  the  rice 
grown  on  certain  temple  glebe  lands. 

The  ''broom  star,"  or  comet,  swept  the  skies  and 
m()yed  to  the  East.  A  lotus  of  auspicious  omen, 
owers  on  a  stalk,  whitened  in  the  pond.  There 
was  an  eclipse  of  the  sun.  Rains,  floods,  a  palace 
are  spoken  of  in  the  Chronicles,  and  the  late 
ht  and  famine  were  doubtless  attributed  to  the 
comet.  A  Buddhist  priest,  full  of  Chinese  ideas  of 
astronomy,  won  fame  by  ex[)laining  a  meteor  accord- 
ing to  his  new  ideas.  A  great  star  had  floated  from 
East  to  West,  and  there  was  a  sound  like  thunder. 
When  the  people  were  talking  of  the  ''noise  of  the 
star"  and  of  "earth  thunder, "  he  declared  it  to  be 
the  barking  of  the  red  celestial  dog,  Ama  no  Inu.  As 
es  along  through  heaven,  it  becomes  a  star  of 
tens  of  rods  long  and  is  swifter  than  the  wind. 
The  effigies  of  this  imaginary  beast  still  guard  the 
temple  portals  in  Ja})an.  When  again  in  tlie  north- 
west a  new  luminary  appeared,  this  Rev.  Mr.  Bin, 
■Be  authority  was  still  good,  declared  it  to  be  a 
rown  star.  When  "the  star  entered  the  moon," 
troubles  portended.  These  are  samples  of  the 
literary  matter  which  fills  the  Chronicles. 

Soga  Emishi  was  virtual  ruler.  When  Prince 
Ohomata  would  be  a  strict  disciplinarian  in  Court 
etiquette  with  the  dilatory  ministers,  and,  following 


MUK 


136  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Chinese  and  Korean  precedents,  have  them  on  duty 
at  the  palace  an  hour  before  daybreak,  there  to 
remain  between  the  hours  of  the  Hare  and  the  Ser- 
pent, their  coming  and  going  regulated  by  means  of 
a  bell,  the  Dai j in,  Emishi  Soga,  vetoed  the  measure. 
A  new  palace  was  built,  and  also  a  pagoda  of  nine 
stories.  Tribute-bearers  from  Korea  and  students 
and  learned  priests  back  from  China  came  to  the 
capital.  The  Mikado  Jomei  died  a.d.  641,  and  the 
Empress  Kogyoku  ascended  ^Hhe  throne"  —  which 
meant  a  slightly  raised  piece  of  matting.  Yemishi 
Soga  was  reappointed  Dai  j  in,  while  his  son  Hiruke 
''took  into  his  own  hands  the  reins  of  government,  and 
his  power  was  greater  than  his  father's.  Therefore 
thieves  and  robbers  were  in  dread  of  him  and  things 
dropped  on  the  highway  were  not  picked  up." 

At  his  own  house  Yemishi  Soga  entertained  the 
Korean  envoys,  presenting  them  with  a  fine  horse 
and  twenty  bars  of  iron.  Anon  the  guests  were 
amused  with  a  display  of  wrestling.  White  sparrows 
were  caught  by  the  pages  —  a  good  omen.  It  being 
a  time  of  drought,  the  sacrificial  killing  of  horses  and 
oxen  before  the  Shinto  shrines  took  place  (the  flesh 
being  eaten  by  the  peasants),  changes  of  the  site  of 
the  market-places  were  made,  and  prayers  to  the  river- 
god  were  offered  for  rain,  but  all  proved  of  no  avail. 

The  ebb  and  flow  of  popularity  between  the  Indian 
and  the  native  religion  was  now  to  be  illustrated. 
The  man  of  Ainu  title  was  to  ride  into  power  on  the 
wave    of   the   Aryan    religion.     In   the    ministerial 


[E  POLITICAL  REVOLUTION  OF  AD.  645     137 

councils  it  was  clear  that  the  Buddhist  doctrines 
were  taking  greater  hold.  The  Dai j in  recommended 
a  ten-doku,  or  reading  of  the  sutras,  with  repentance 
of  sin,  humiliation,  and  earnest  prayers  for  rain.  Two 
days  afterwards,  in  the  South  Court  of  the  Great 
Temple,  the  images  of  the  Buddha  and  Bosatsu,  or 
saints,  and  of  the  four  Heavenly  Kings  were  magnifi- 
cently adorned.  A  multitude  of  priests  read  large 
portions  of  the  sutras.  The  Dai  j  in  himself  held  a 
censer  in  his  hand  and,  having  burnt  incense  in  it, 
offered  prayer.  But  only  a  slight  rain  fell,  and 
when  there  were  no  further  emptyings  of  the  clouds, 
the  reading  of  the  sutras  was  discontinued. 

The  Buddhist  style  of  rain-making  having  proved 
of  no  effect,  the  Chinese  method  was  put  into  practice. 
The  Mikado,  proceeding  to  the  river  source,  knelt 
down  and  prayed,  worshipping  toward  the  four 
quarters,  and  looking  up  to  Heaven.  "Straightway 
there  was  thunder  and  a  great  rain,  which  eventually 
fell  for  five  days  and  plentifully  bedewed  the  empire." 
Su(ih  practical  results  satisfied  the  people,  even  if  it 
gave  a  check  to  Buddhism.  Hereupon  the  peasantry 
throughout  the  empire  cried  with  one  voice, ''  Banzai," 
and  said  ''An  Emperor  of  Exceeding  Virtue." 

Again  the  Empress  commanded  the  Premier  to 
build  a  new  palace.  It  was  to  be  begun  in  the  latter 
pai-t  of  the  ninth  month  and  completed  not  later  than 
the  twelfth  month.  The  levy  for  workmen  included 
th(i  country  between  Aki  and  Totomi. 

Many  thousand  of  the  Ainu  came  to  make  sub- 


138  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

mission.  Besides  entertaining  them  at  Court,  Soga, 
the  Dai j  in,  brought  them  to  his  house  and  made 
personally  kind  inquiries  of  them.  Perhaps  they 
were  his  kinsmen,  and  he  talked  with  them  in  their 
own  tongue.  His  bodyguard  of  fifty  soldiers,  who 
attended  him  everywhere,  amid  jealous  and  hostile 
rivals,  were  very  probably  made  up  of  Ainu  men. 

By  this  time,  the  temptation  to  unfold  the  pinions 
of  a  towering  ambition  came  to  the  Premier.  He 
seemed  determined  to  ride  into  power  on  the  incom- 
ing wave  of  the  new  Aryan  religion  and  with  the  help 
of  Aryan  men.  His  bringing  so  many  Ainu  to  the 
capital  was  evidently  with  this  purpose  in  view. 
Coming  out  boldly,  he  made  assumptions  of  Imperial 
rank,  erecting  architectural  monuments  of  his  an- 
cestry. With  a  view  to  his  own  posthumous  honor, 
he  built  his  own  ancestral  temple  at  Taka-miya. 
He  performed  an  eight-row  dance,  which,  according 
to  the  Chinese  ritual,  was  only  proper  to  Imperial 
princes.  In  a  song  about  adjusting  garters  and  gird- 
ing up  loins  to  wade  a  river  in  Yamato,  he  hinted 
at  usurpation  of  the  Throne.  With  Chinese-Hke 
mind,  in  preparation  for  his  own  sepulchre,  even  as 
the  Mikado  Nintoku  had  done,  and  on  the  pretext  of 
not  wanting  to  trouble  other  people  after  his  death, 
'^he  levied  all  the  people  of  the  land  as  well  as  the 
serfs  of  the  one  hundred  and  eighty  Be  [or  guilds] 
and  constructed  two  tombs  at  Imaki."  One  was  to 
be  for  his  son  Iruka. 

Prince   Shotoku   had  left  at  his   untimely  death 


[E  POLITICAL  REVOLUTION  OF  A.D.  645    139 


eight  sons  and  six  daughters,  who,  being  persons  of 
influence  in  this  age  of  advancing  Buddhism,  were 
the  objects  of  the  ambitious  Soga's  jealousy.  He 
assembled  the  serfs  of  the  late  Prince,  and  made 
them  do  forced  labor  on  the  precincts  of  the  tomb  he 
was  proudly  rearing  for  his  own  name. 

This  high-handed  act  aroused  the  wrath  of  Sho- 
toku's  daughter,  the  princess,  who  charged  the 
Premier  with  wantonly  usurping  the  Government. 
''In  Heaven  there  are  not  two  suns;  in  a  State  there 
cannot  be  two  sovereigns.  Why  should  he,  at  his 
own  pleasure,  employ  in  forced  labor,  all  the  people 
^()f  the  fief?  .  .  .  From  this  hour  her  hate  began 
^■■kther." 

^^HKichecked  in  his  career,  the  man  who  boasted  an 
^^HK  title,  granted  on  his  own  private  authority  to 
^^HKon  Iruka,  a  purple  cap  which  made  him  rank, 
as  it  were,  with  the  Premier.  This  Iruka  hated  the 
princes,  sons  of  Shotoku,  who  on  account  of  their 
father's  name,  as  well  as  of  their  own  abilities,  were 
gaining  fame  and  prestige  in  the  empire.  Plotting 
to  set  them  aside,  he  sent  armed  forces  after  them  in 
tlieir  mountain  retreats.  Eventually  the  princes  and 
wives  committed  suicide  by  strangling  The 
ier  chid  his  son  for  his  severity,  and  warned 
him  that  now  his  own  life  was  in  danger. 

Bill  higher  to  Heaven  rose  the  edifice  of  the  Ainu- 
named  man's  ambition,  and,  seeing  such  prosperity, 
tliere  was  no  lack  of  flatterers  to  feed  the  usurper's 
vanity  with  art  and  song.     Among  the  lotuses  in 


ffini 


140  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

the  pond  was  one  which  bore  two  flowers  on  one  stem. 
Thereupon  an  artist  saw  a  happy  omen  of  the  con- 
tinuing prosperity  :0f  the  Yemishi  Soga.  So  with 
golden  ink  he  made  a  picture  of  the  wonder,  and 
presented  it  before  the  sixteen-foot-high  Buddha 
of  the  Great  Hokoji.  Furthermore  the  witches  and 
wizards  of  the  whole  country,  breaking  off  leafy 
branches  and  hanging  them  with  tree  fibre  of  the 
paper  mulberry  (in  the  manner  of  offerings  to  the 
gods)  watched  the  time  when  the  Dai j  in  was  crossing 
a  bridge.  Then  they  vied  with  one  another  in 
addressing  to  him  subtle  interpretation  of  divine 
words.  They  were  in  great  numbers  so  they  could  not 
be  distinctly  heard.  ''Old  people  said  that  this  was 
a  sign  of  changes." 

There  was  a  change,  and  it  came  very  soon  after. 
Some  might  call  it  a  ''conflict"  or  "warfare"  between 
"science"  and  "religion."  Rather  was  it  a  "duel  of 
wits,"  a  collision  of  human  ambitions.  In  any 
event,  mutually  hostile  forces  were  incarnated  in 
Soga  no  Emishi  and  the  young  prince  who  was  one 
day  to  fill  the  throne  and  curb  the  power  of  both  clans 
and  nobles,  giving  to  the  Throne  —  so  we  shall  write 
it,  with  a  capital  —  new  significance. 

There  is  never  any  real  "conflict"  or  "warfare" 
between  science  and  religion,  any  more  than  between 
science  and  chemistry,  but  to  the  end  of  time  there 
will  be  friction  and  struggle  between  the  human 
leaders  who,  in  the  name  of  either,  hold  power  or 
wield  influence.     Soga  no  Yemishi  was  a  man  who 


[E  POLITICAL  REVOLUTION   OF  AD.  645     141 

know  the  political  advantage  of  holding  to  a  conquer- 
ing creed. 

By  this  time,  as  we  shall  see,  good  men  were  pre- 
paring a  double  conspiracy  to  remove  the  Soga 
''boss"  or  tyrant.  One  motive  arose  out  of  their 
hatred  of  usurpation,  the  other  was  a  determination 
that  old  abuses  must  cease,  and  the  policy  and  type  of 
c'ivihzation  represented  })y  a  man  of  Ainu  name,  who 
doubtless  counted  on  an  Ainu  following  to  back  his 
plot  and  claims,  must  give  way  to  reform  and  a  better 
system  of  government.  The  reformers  would  do 
away  with  a  state  of  things  in  which  clan  fights  were 
chronic  and  the  assassination  of  great  uwu,  oven  of 
emperors,  not  unusual. 

the  father  and  the  son  being  ever  on  their 
were  well  forearmed.  In  644  thoy  built  two 
houses  on  the  Amagashi  hill,  the  father's  being  called 
Upper  Hill  Palace  Gate  and  the  son's  Valley  Palace 
Gate.  Both  were  strongly  palisaded  and  had  an 
armory  near  the  gate.  Provision  for  fire  was  made 
by  water-tanks  and  scores  of  firemen's  pole  hooks. 
Armed  guards,  stout  fellows,  very  probably  Ainu, 
w(;re  employed  to  watch  these  fortified  castles. 
The  sons  and  daughters  of  the  Soga  family  wore 
styled  princes  and  princesses. 

other  castle  with  a  moat  was  built  on  the  east 
of  Unebi.  This  is  the  mountain  near  which 
immu's  palace  had  been  placed,  around  which  are 
tombs  of  many  mikados,  and  on  which  in  1889  a 
temple  dedicated  to  Japan's  first  ruler  was  built. 


^^^iwd 


Jimm 


142  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Soga's  guard  of  fifty  men  were  from  Adzuma  or  the 
East,  the  Ainu  region.  The  young  men  of  various 
noble  famihes  came  to  his  gate  and  waited  on  him. 
He  called  them  his  boys  and  spoke  of  himself  as  their 
father.  In  one  case  an  entire  clan,  the  Aiya,  acted 
as  retainers  for  the  two  families  of  father  and  son,  ever 
ready  at  a  moment's  notice  to  put  on  their  armor  and 
grasp  their  weapons. 

Despite  all  his  fortresses  and  guards,  Iruka  wore  a 
sword  day  and  night.  Nevertheless,  the  schemers 
concocted  a  plan  'Ho  make  him  lay  it  aside."  The 
date  for  the  assassination  of  Iruka  and  the  over- 
throw of  the  Soga  ring  was  fixed  for  the  10th  day  of 
the  4th  month,  when  the  envoys  of  the  three  Korean 
kingdoms  should  present  tribute  to  the  Empress. 

Nakatomi  Kamatari,  chief  of  the  Shinto  religion 
and  the  future  regent  and  founder  of  the  Fujiwara 
family,  who  was  counted  as  twenty-first  in  descent 
from  one  of  the  companions  of  Ninigi,  who  came  down 
from  Heaven,  was  "a.  man  of  upright  and  loyal  char- 
acter and  of  a  reforming  disposition."  He  ''was 
indignant  with  Soga  no  Iruka  for  breaking  down  the 
order  of  Prince  and  Vassal,  and  for  cherishing  evil 
designs  upon  the  State."  Associating  with  the 
princes  of  the  Imperial  Hne  to  discover  a  wise  ruler, 
he  fixed  upon  Naka  no  Oye  (afterwards  the  Mikado 
Tenchi,  who  ruled  668-672),  but  for  want  of  intimate 
relations  with  him  had  been  unable  to  unfold  his 
inner  sentiments.  Happening  to  be  one  of  a  foot- 
ball party,  in  which  Naka  no  Oye  played  at  the  foot 


POLITICAL  REVOLUTIOX  OF  AD.  645     143 

of  a  keyaki  tree  near  the  temple  of  Hokoji,  he  observed 
the  Prince's  leathern  shoe  fall  off  with  the  ball. 
Placing  it  on  the  palm  of  his  hand,  he  knelt  before 
the  Prince  and  offered  it  to  its  owner.  The  Prince, 
also  on  his  knees,  respectfully  receiveil  it.  From  this 
time  forth  they  became  mutual  friends  and  told  each 
other  all  their  thoughts.  There  was  no  longer  any 
concealment  between  them. 

To  avert  suspicion,  the  two  conspirators  took  into 
their  hands  ''yellow  rolls"  (Chinese  books)  and 
studied  personally  the  doctrines  of  Chow  and  Con- 
fucius with  the  learned  teacher  Shoan,  just  returned 
from  China.  Thus  they,  at  length,  while  on  their 
way  there  and  back,  walking  shoulder  to  shoulder, 
secretly  preparetl  their  i)lans.  On  all  points  they 
were  agreed. 

On  the  day  and  hour  appointed,  all  were  assembled 
in  the  Great  Hall  of  Audience,  Kogioku  the  grand- 
daughter of  Shotoku  being  Empress,  and  wholly 
under  the  influence  of  Soga.  Prince  Naka  ordered  the 
Twelve  Gates  to  be  shut,  that  none  should  come  in  or 
go  out.  Then  calling  the  guards  together,  he  promised 
then  I  rew^ards.  lie  had  his  own  long  spear,  hidden 
but  ready.  Nakatomi  and  his  people  were  on  hand 
with  bows  and  arrows.  Other  companions  were  in 
the  plot,  but  Prince  Naka,  fearing  for  their  nerve, 
seized  a  sword  and  struck  down  Iruka  on  head,  neck, 
and  leg.  Before  he  was  finally  despatched  by  another 
assassin.  Prince  Naka  pleaded  with  the  Empress  for 
vindication.     She,  unable  to  understand  the  meaning 


144  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

of  the  bloody  onset,  retired.  Prince  Naka,  who  had 
fortified  the  temple  of  Hokoji,  entered  the  edifice 
with  the  ministers,  and  prepared  to  defend  it. 

When  the  body  of  Iruka  was  dehvered  to  his  father 
Yemishi,  the  Aiya  clan,  men  in  armor  and  with 
weapons,  prepared  to  avenge  their  master's  death. 
Prince  Naka  thereupon  sent  General  Tokudai  to 
explain  matters  to  the  ''rebel"  band.  One  of  the 
latter,  making  a  speech  pointing  out  the  danger  of 
resistance  and  the  certainty  of  swift  execution  of 
Yemishi  Soga  on  the  morrow,  ungirded  his  sword, 
flung  away  his  bow  and  went  off,  deserting  the  cause. 
''The  rebel  troops,  moreover,  following  his  example, 
dispersed  and  ran  away." 

The  Soga  cause  went  up  in  smoke.  "Yemishi 
Soga  no  Omi,  when  about  to  be  executed,  burnt  the 
History  of  the  Emperors,  the  History  of  the  Country, 
and  the  objects  of  value."  On  the  same  day  that 
they  died,  permission  was  given  for  the  interment  of 
the  bodies  of  father  and  sons,  not  in  misasagi,  but  in 
haka  or  common  tombs.  Great  was  the  fall  of  the 
House  of  Soga. 

Kotoku,  fellow-conspirator  with  Naka  no  Oye, 
succeeded  at  the  age  of  forty-nine  his  sister  to  the 
throne,  ruling  from  645  to  654,  and  with  the  aid  of 
Nakatomi  Kamatari,  founder  of  the  Fujiwara  family, 
began  the  inauguration  of  the  new  order  of  things 
and  carried  them  far  toward  completion.  This 
change  in  national  policy  was  relatively  as  profound 
and  as  far-reaching  as  the  palace  revolution  of  1868 


[E  POLITICAL  REVOLUTION  OF  AD.   645     145 

and  the  beginning  of  the  second  New  Japan.     Let  us 
look  further  at  this. 

Before  a.d.  045,  when  only  a  small  part  —  far  less 
than  half  of  the  area  even  of  modern  seventeenth- 
century  Japan  —  was  under  the  dominion  of  the 
Yamato  government,  there  were  various  sovereignties 
in  the  different  islands  and  regions.  The  perpetual 
'' uprisings,"  "rebellions,"  "conquests,"  clan  feuds, 
negotiations,  and  military  expeditions  sent  among 
the  "Kumaso"  in  the  south  and  west  and  the  "Ye- 
mislii"  in  the  East,  show  other  domains  or  govern- 
ments, which  after  whole,  or  partial  victories,  or 
conquests,  were  merged  into  a  rude  feudalism,  with 
the  suzerain  at  Yamato,  yet  with  constant  oscillations 
of  power.  The  revelations  of  archieology,  which 
concerns  itself  with  the  dolmens  and  tombs,  that  in 
other  islands  and  regions  are  as  noble  in  content  and 
as  significant  in  proportions  as  those  in  the  Yamato 
region  of  Hondo,  show  this;  and  the  pages  of  the 
Rec'ords  and  Chronicles  tell  no  other  story.  No 
profuse  employment  of  the  term  gods,  or  excessive 
fulsomeness  of  honorifics  in  later  times,  can  conceal 
the  facts  which  make  up  the  truth. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   FIRST  NEW   JAPAN 

The  destruction  of  the  Soga  clan  in  645  was  per- 
haps the  occasion  rather  than  the  cause  of  a  reform 
that  gave  Nippon  a  definitely  organized  government, 
and  enabled  the  men  of  that  age  to  lay  the  solid  foun- 
dations of  empire.  With  the  aid  of  the  political 
thought  of  China  and  its  living  model  of  order  and 
power  before  their  eyes,  the  Yamato  men  first  recon- 
structed the  Throne  and  Government,  and  then  began 
the  work  of  unifying  all  the  tribes.  In  a  word,  their 
task  was  the  making  of  a  new  nation.  They  thrust 
out  the  fiction  of  a  patriarchal  clan,  in  which  public 
and  private  were  hardly  distinguishable  terms,  and 
in  which  the  Mikado  was  so  pohtically  weak,  and  they 
built  up  a  most  powerful  centralized  bureaucracy, 
above  which  the  Mikado  was  set  as  theoretically 
omnipotent.  They  were  not  able  so  to  build  and 
guard  as  to  keep  Court  and  Government  separate, 
but  they  drew  a  sharp  line  between  what  was  public 
and  what  was  private.  Then,  with  the  dogmas  and 
sanctions  of  religion  and  a  mighty  army  of  soldiers 
kept  in  activity  both  near  and  far,  they  built  up  the 
structure  of  a  State  based  on  the  idea  of  conquest. 

146 


THE  FIRST  NEW  JAPAN  147 

In  this  new  State  there  was  a  tremendous  gulf 
fixed  between  the  Throne  and  the  People,  the  bureau- 
crats having  virtually  the  real  power.  Swift  was  the 
movement.  More  rapidly  even  than  in  the  last  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century  did  this  evolution  pro- 
ceed. In  methods  of  thought,  style,  writing,  and 
costumes,  China's  models  were  followed  in  every 
department  of  life.  In  the  sudden  creation  of  a  new 
sentiment,  Chinese  political  fashions  seemed  only 
logical  and  reasonable.  A  triple  premiership,  after 
the  Chinese  pattern;  the  marking  of  chronology  and 
the  adoption  of  a  State  calendar  —  sure  and  supreme 
test  of  sovereignty  in  eastern  Asia;  the  naming  the 
first  of  the  Year  Periods;  the  organization  and  pro- 
tection of  the  Buddhist  hierarchy,  the  fixing  of  the 
status  of  free  subjects  and  slaves,  the  establishment 
of  arsenals,  the  regulation  of  taxation  and  land  allot- 
uK^nt,  the  reform  of  popular  customs  as  to  marriage, 
burial,  etc.,  the  ordination  of  orders,  ranks,  caps,  and 
the  costumes  of  nobles,  the  making  of  a  census ;  the 
organization  of  a  five-house  system  in  the  villages, 
and  finally  the  creation  of  eight  departments  of 
Government,  Imperial  Household,  rites  and  offices, 
nobles,  interior,  war,  justice,  treasury,  —  all  within 
Hvo  years  or  so,  shows  the  rapidity  of  reform. 

Notable  was  the  political  conception  and  the 
geographical  division  borrowed  from  China,  of  the 
Five  Home  provinces,  or  Imperial  Region,  and  the 
outside  provinces.  These  latter  were  governed  by 
officers  sent  out  from  the  capital.    A  system  was 


148  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

gradually  elaborated  for  the  making  of  roads,  and  of 
posts,  where  horses  were  kept  for  those  on  Govern- 
ment business,,  and  of  barriers  and  guard  gates. 
Some  of  these  latter,  in  strategic  positions,  in  Ise, 
Mino,  Echizen,  etc.,  became  famous  in  history.  The 
officer  on  route  displayed  his  bell  token,  which 
indicated  by  its  shape  and  the  number  of  bells  on  it, 
to  how  many  horses  he  was  entitled.  In  time,  also, 
the  boundaries  of  the  provinces  were  fixed,  and  as 
in  China,  their  governors  were  divided  into  four 
grades.  Some  of  the  prettiest  of  the  Manyo  poems 
were  occasioned  by  departure  on  frontier  service. 

This  creation  of  a  social  abyss,  dividing  the  common- 
wealth into  official  and  non-official  humanity,  was 
one  of  the  most  profound  and  far-reaching,  if  not 
morally  the  most  disastrous  results  of  overcentraliza- 
tion  and  excess  of  bureaucracy.  Such  a  separation 
created  caste,  the  shackles  which  the  people  of 
twentieth-century  Japan,  after  a  social  slavery  of  a 
thousand  years,  vainly  strive  at  once  to  break. 
Nevertheless,  time  and  education  work  wonders. 
The  mind  and  habits  which  this  artificial  social  bar- 
rier engendered  suggested  fox  and  geese,  or  wolves 
and  sheep.  Thus  the  New  Japan  started  out,  not  with 
the  idea  of  a  true  nation,  but  of  a  nation  within  a  na- 
tion. Almost  the  only  democratic  principle  vital  in 
the  realm  was  Buddhism,  the  great  leveller  and  exalter. 

It  seems  almost  comical  to  find  the  machinery  of 
the  mighty  Middle  Kingdom  thus  imported  into 
tiny  Japan.     That  a  country  like  China,  so  different 


'HE  FIRJ 


Nomi 


ce,  language,   history,   and  development   from 
an,  should  be  able  to  secure  so  close  an  imitator 
argues  strongly  for  the  age  and  experience  of  the  one 
and  the  youth  and  rudimentary  knowledge  of  the 
other.     It  was  a  perilous  policy  to  instal  such  mighty 
hinery  in  so  small  a  plant, 
theory,  all  the  land  belonged  to  the  Mikado, 
ominally  the  tilled  land  was  divided  among  the 
people,  that  is,  the  peasantry,  the  rule  (from  China) 
being  that  ''the  profits  arising  from  the  hills  and 
rivers,  the  jungles  and  marshes  shall  be  shared  in 
common  by  the  Government  and  the  people."     This 
measure,  seemingly  so  benevolent,  was  for  the  pur- 
of  taxation.     Fixed  payments  into  the  treasury, 
ad  of  vassal  gifts,  were  now  the  rule.     Never- 
theless,  with   such   an   enormous   amount   of   forest 
iMwaste  land  yet  to  be  cleared,  there  was  in  this 
very  wealth,  derived  from  concjuest  of  the  Ainu,  an 
element   destined    to   defeat   the    purpose   of   equal 
allotment,  to  aggrandize  the  rich,  t(^  create  political 
bosses   and    bring   in    feudalism,    which   meant   the 
sworded  bully  overawing  alike  flic   fanner,   trader, 
and  man  of  manual  industry. 

le  new  system  of  government,  nominally  built 

xation,  started  out  with  exemption  and  privilege. 

All  men  above  the  eighth  rank  were  free  from  tax. 

Even  the  sons  of  men  of  high  rank  were  let  off.    As 

tlie  sequel  proved,  so  far  from  exemption  satisfying 

them,  these  nobles  became  the  most  grasping  holders 


150  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

who  won  lands,  especially  in  the  way  of  lending  money 
to  poor  farmers  and  then  foreclosing  mortgages,  in- 
creased in  power  and  numbers,  while  the  poor  and 
bankrupt  multiplied.  In  the  scramble  for  wealth  the 
Buddhist  monks  followed,  and  the  monasteries 
became  often  suddenly  and  startUngly  rich. 

Reorganization  of  the  State  was  now  the  order  of 
the  day,  and  the  work  of  innovation  went  steadily 
on  for  over  a  century  and  a  half.  Its  main  features 
were  a  triple  premiership,  eight  departments  with 
numerous  offices,  an  official  calendar,  organization  and 
protection  of  the  Buddhist  community,  ordination 
of  a  status  of  slaves  and  freemen,  declaration  of 
the  right  of  petition,  government  of  provinces,  the 
settlement  of  ranks,  orders,  costumes,  and  etiquette, 
allotment  of  land,  census,  registry  of  the  villagers, 
the  grouping  of  the  populace  in  units  of  five  persons, 
the  beginning  of  post  or  horse  relays,  provincial 
division  of  the  country,  and  the  erection  of  barriers 
and  gates.  In  a  word,  there  was  a  complete  trans- 
formation of  the  social  system  of  Japan  through  the 
introduction  of  Chinese  institutions. 

The  State  was  no  longer  identical  with  the  Mikado. 
Instead  of  a  tribal  organization,  a  military  institution 
with  religious  taxation  supervened.  It  was  true 
Chinese  doctrine  that  since  the  people  are  cared  for 
by  the  State,  they  must  support  and  defend  its 
interests.  Instead  of  kinship,  real  or  nominal,  they 
were  now  in  the  eye  of  the  Government  as  so  many 
decimal    or    semi-decimal    units.     Henceforth    the 


THE  FIRST  NEW  JAPAN 


151 


do  is  less  a  person  than  an  institution.  To  use 
odern  instance"  for  illustration,  what  took  place 
m  Yamato  was  akin  to  the  rebuilding,  both  of  the  old 
foundation  and  the  stump,  of  the  \\'ashington  monu- 
ment by  the  Potomac,  so  long  in  arrested  development. 
In  theory,  the  base  was  destroyed  even  while  it  was 
(enlarged,  but  the  result  was  that  the  column  was 
preserved  and  its  apex  elevated.  In  Japan  fictitious 
hi(Tarchy  passed  away  or  was  ignored,  but  the  Mikado 
was  retained  and  exalted.  Japan  ceased  to  be  a 
collection  of  tribal  units  and  became  a  State.  Never- 
theless, as  yet  there  was  no  nation. 

In  other  words,  when  the  revolution  of  b4o,  caused 
bv  the  entrance  of  Chinese  ideas,  was  over,  there  was 
Hd  Emperor  in  a  new  State,  but  with  no  organic 
connection  between  the  two.     Rather  violent  reform 
ated  two  incongruous  factors,  the  Mikado  and 
rganism. 

cast  a  look  ahead,  we  may  say  that  as  dual 
tion  progressed  even  the  Mikado's  old  autlior- 
ever,  until  our  days,  came  back  to  him.  Theo- 
retically Tenchi  (668-671),  who  had  killed  Soga  in 
045,  broke  the  power  of  the  (Soga)  clan  nobles  and 
established  the  Throne.  In  reality  the  Imperial 
ifcority  was  gradually  usurped  by  high  civil  officers 
ff  his  person,  and  these  mostly  of  one,  the  Fujiwara, 
clan;  while  the  real  authority  of  the  State  at  large  was 
by  military  clans,  Taira  and  Minamoto,  living 
at  a  distance  from  the  capital.  Otherwise  stated,  the 
uction  of  the   boundaries   between  Court  and 


"*    M  a  d 


destruction  o 

1^ 


152  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Government  went  on  at  the  capital,  harem  and  boudoir 
commanding  equal  influence  with  the  Council,  while 
on  the  frontiers  the  armor-clad  man  on  horseback 
in  time  knew  no  authority  but  his  own. 

The  Fujiwara  family  was  founded  by  the  regent 
Nakatomi  Kamatari  (614-669),  who  had  aided 
Tenchi  in  the  revolution  of  645.  In  669  he  fell  ill. 
On  his  death-bed,  the  Mikado  Tenchi  gave  him  per- 
mission to  use  the  name  Fujiwara  (wistaria  meadow) 
for  his  descendants.  No  other  family  in  Japan  is  so 
illustrious  or  has  produced  so  many  famous  men  and 
women,  statesmen,  soldiers,  artists,  poets,  musicians, 
emperors,  and  empresses.  From  the  seventh  to  the 
eleventh  century  they  were  the  real  rulers  of  Japan, 
the  office  of  Premier  becoming  hereditary  in  the 
Fujiwara  line. 

What  must  inevitably  ensue !  The  victorious 
military  clansmen,  having  pacified  the  Ainu  and 
frontier  ruffians,  must  by  and  by  return  from  field  and 
camp.  Tasting  the  luxury  of  the  capital  and  envious 
of  the  spoils  of  oflfice,  they  would  supersede  the  civilian 
ofl^cers  and  assume  the  rule  of  the  Empire.  Then 
the  Feudal  System  of  Japan  was  to  begin.  At  this 
process  let  us  now  look. 

A  centre  of  light,  utility,  order,  and  civilization  in 
the  midst  of  unorganized  and  divided  savagery  was 
this  petty  little  Yamato  kingdom  of  645  a.d.  in  which 
it  seems  absurd,  except  in  prophecy  and  perspective, 
to  speak  of  the  Mikado-chief  as  ''Emperor."  It  was 
not  until  a.d.  670  that  the  name   Nippon  was  oflfi- 


THE  FIRST  NEW  JAPAN 


153 


cially  adopted  and  notified  to  Korea.     The  Land  of 
Great  Japan  is  spoken  of  in  a.d.  073. 

The  same  Chinese  doctrines  and  institutions  that 
had  given  system  and  order  to  the  Middle  King- 
dom overweighted  the  tiny  state  with  pohtical 
machinery.  For  true  equilibrium,  extension  by 
conquest  and  administration  of  the  Ainu  and  outly- 
ing tribes  was  necessary.  To  this  end  the  military 
force  was  organized  to  subdue  by  arms,  while  new 
dogmas  of  Mikadoism  were  forged  to  overawe  the 
mind  of  the  Aryan  ''barbarians,"  who  still  occupied 
hern  Hondo, 
older  time^  all  able-budicd  men  were  soldiers, 
and  the  Mikado  was  war-chief  and  leader.  Called 
hen  needed,  and  the  campaign  over,  the  peasants 
returned  to  the  field.  But  now  as  the  "Emperor" 
ame  more  and  more  of  a  sedentary  ruler,  absorbed 
e  burdens  of  etiquette,  loving  literary  and  artistic 
alliance,  a  figurehead  above  many  bureaus,  he 
veiled  into  shadow.  The  work  of  the  soldier 
me  more  and  more  that  of  a  profession,  and 
military  business  the  monopoly  of  a  class.  As  the 
nger  men  were  kept  in  permanent  organizations, 
he  weaker  were  left  at  agriculture,  to  toil  and 
xed. 

is  chapter  of  decay  in  Mikadoism  had  a  double 
As  the  distinction  between  civil  and  military 
became  fixed,  so  at  Court  the  ritual  of  Shinto  was 
elaborated,  which  made  of  the  State  religion  a  political 
engine.     The  Mikado  became  more  and  more  a  deity 


and 

rexur 


154  JAPANESE  NATION   IN  EVOLUTION 

and  was  addressed  as  such.  The  theory  that  the 
Yamato  men  were  Heaven-descended,  and  the 
'' rebels"  were  earth-sprung,  was  hardened  into  dogma, 
to  doubt  which  was  death.  Orthodoxy,  rehgious, 
pohtical,  economic,  was  taught  at  the  edge  of  the 
sword.  No  Inquisition  in  Europe  was  more  terrible 
in  its  religious  animus  or  more  unquailing  in  its  ulti- 
mate purpose  to  unify  belief.  Besides  clothes  and 
manners,  the  very  expression  of  the  face  —  ^Hhe 
Japanese  smile"  —  were  ordained  by  iron  law.  It 
is  a  silly  notion  of  sentimentalists,  ignorant  of  the 
history  of  Dai  Nippon,  that  ''Japan  never  perse- 
cuted"—  no,  not  more  than  a  thousand  or  fifteen 
hundred  years.  Religion  was  in  the  hereditary 
charge  of  the  Nakatomi,  while  the  civil  offices  were 
concentrated  almost  wholly  in  the  Fujiwara  family. 
With  equal  footstep,  the  military  business  advanced 
from  precedent  to  fixed  form,  becoming  a  monopoly 
of  the  two  clans,  Taira  and  Minamoto  (Gen  and  Hei, 
or  Genji  and  Heike). 

In  extending  the  sway  of  the  Mikado  over  the 
mainland,  islands,  and  waters  of  the  Southwest,  the 
Taira  furnished  the  heroes.  This  family  was  founded 
in  the  eighth  century,  when  a  son  of  the  Emperor's 
concubine  became  Lord  High  Chamberlain,  and  his 
grandson  received  the  surname  of  Taira.  Families 
never  die  out  in  communal  Japan,  even  though  blood 
and  transmission  of  life  fail,  for  the  word  is  more  than 
the  fact  and  the  name  than  the  individual.  Her 
people   wonder   why   George    Washington    had    no 


THE  FIRST  NEW  JAPAN 


155 


and 


cendants,  and  ask  why  he  did  not  adopt  a  son. 
ould  be  vain  for  a  Galton  to  attempt  to  make  a 
udy  of  the  heredity  of  genius  through  true  biometry. 
The  Taira,  Hke  any  other  clan,  having  plenty  of 
husbands  for  their  daughters,  adopted  sons  who  had 
no  Taira  blood,  and  yet  these  were  reckoned  in  the 
clan.  What  they  did  was  the  fashion  of  all  the 
families. 

rerhaps  appropriately,  the  Taira  flourished  and 
where  they  rose;  that  is,  in  the  South.  Toward 
the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  they  were  annihilated 
after  civil  war  in  a  great  naval  battle,  in  the  regions 
where  they  had  so  often  won  glory.  The  monument 
of_  Kiyomori,  their  greatest  name,  is  near  Kobe, 
was  the  David  of  his  clan,  both  in  rise  to  power 
rom  modest  station,  and  in  the  spirit  of  his  death- 
prayer,  that  the  heads  of  his  enemy,  laid  on  his 
b,  would  be  a  better  decoration  than  sculpture, 
and  more  to  be  desired  than  prayers  or  liturgy. 

he  severance  of  the  agricultural  and  the  military 
corresponded  with  a  similar  assignment  of  func- 
tions at  Court,  the  Nakatomi  and  Fujiwara  monopo- 
lizing the  civil  functions,  the  former  the  religious  and 
tlie   latter  the   secular.    They   controlled   also  the 
fcne    by   marrying   their   daughters   and    female 
(fitivcs  to  the  Mikado.     By  degrees  the  Fujiwara 
exercised    atlministrative    power    in    the    Emperor's 
■de,  and  appointed  their  brothers,  sons,  and  male 
relatives  to  all  the  high  offices,  that  of  Regent  (Kuam- 
u,  the  bolt  inside  the  gate)  becoming  hereditary  in 


baku.  the  bol 


156  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

their  own  family,  and  lasting  until  1868  —  as  indeed, 
also,  for  twelve  centuries,  did  most  of  the  features 
of  the  Reform  of  645. 

The  Nakatomi  held  the  offices  of  religion  at  a  time 
when  the  Council  of  Gods  and  Men  was  higher  even 
than  the  Great  Council  of  State.  These  priestly 
politicians  had  charge  of  and  recited  the  Norito 
rituals,  so  shaping  Shinto  that  it  became  little  more 
than  an  unmoral  system  of  emotional  patriotism  on 
the  one  hand,  and  an  engine  of  tremendous  political 
power  on  the  other,  being  especially  a  yoke  upon  the 
conquered  Ainu  and  other  barbarians,  both  as  to 
custom  and  conscience.  Undoubtedly  Shinto  helped 
to  unify  many  tribes  of  varied  ethnic  origin  into  one 
nation.  All  the  people  were  taught  to  reverence  the 
Mikado  as  the  Vice-gerent  of  the  Heavenly  Gods 
while  the  cornucopia  of  Chinese  rhetoric  was  emptied 
upon  his  head  —  ^'clouds,"  ''dragons,"  the  ''sun," 
and  various  cosmic  features  or  creatures  being  his 
verbal  analogues. 

Possibly  it  was  wise  statecraft  thus  to  exalt  the 
Mikado  religiously,  in  order  that  his  personality 
being  swallowed  in  the  institution,  he  might  the  less 
wield  political  influence  or  power.  Let  not  the  cold- 
blooded alien  analyst,  or  even  the  cool  historical 
critic,  needlessly  ascribe  evil  motives  to  these  ancient 
statesmen. 

Doubtless  they  thought  they  were  doing  what 
was  best  for  the  social  organism,  since  some  pre- 
vious Mikados  of  character  had,  by  their  personal 


THE  FIRST  NEW  JAPAN 


157 


behavior,  brought  disaster  upon  the  people,  some 
of  them  committing  crimes  too  horrible  to  relate, 
except  for  the  learned  and  in  a  dead  language. 
An  increase  of  ability  in  a  ruler  of  such  power 
endangered  the  stability  of  the  new  structure, 
and  these  creators  of  Japanese  orthodoxy  early 
foresaw  the  danger  of  a  certain  Chinese  dogma, 
which  they  had  imported,  and  set  on  a  pedestal. 
Some  of  the  modern  blatant  and  fire-eating  Mikado- 
re  verencers  do  not  seem  to  think  on  these  facts 
of  history. 

There  are  those  in  Japan  who  show  a  sort  of  chau- 
vinism in  religion  and  a  tendency  to  minify  the  tre- 
mendous obligations  of  their  country  to  influences 
without.     Such    maintain    that    even    after    a 

cmsand  years  or  more,  Buddhism  wrought  no  real 
conversion.  It  has  ''on  the  whole  remained  the 
religion,  so  to  say,  of  night  and  gloomy  death,  while 
Shintoism  has  always  retained  its  firm  hold  on  the 
popular  mind  as  the  cult  ...  of  daylight  and  the 
living  dead."  Such  typical  modern  Japanese  declare 
also  that  "we  can  be  upright  and  brave  without 
the  help  of  a  creed  with  a  God  or  deities  at  its 
other  end." 

much  for  feeling  and  opinion.  As  matter  of 
allengeable  fact,  Buddhism  was  an  unspeakably 
grand  gift  to  the  imagination  of  the  Japanese,  for  it 
gave  them  the  conception  of  a  universe.  The  boun- 
daries of  Shinto  were  those  of  Japan,  and  the  flight 
of  time  was  unmarked  save  by  moons  and  seasons. 


menc 

■P 

tnouf 


158  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

Buddhism  opened  the  gates  of  the  eternal  ages. 
From  everlasting  to  everlasting  and  throughout  all 
worlds  was  the  vision  offered  by  this  worship  of 
the  Absolute.  Too  many  Japanese  still  live  in  the 
nursery. 


ese,  si 

PI* 

in  t-ne 


CHAPTER  XI 

CHURCH  AND   STATE 

"frontier  theory/'  or  that  of  the  influence  of 
il  causes,  applied  to  the  rehgion  of  the  Nippon- 
ese,^ shows  a  signal  instance  of  the  power  of  things 
rd  to  stimulate  growth  and  perfect  the  organism. 
nTheir  prehistoric  state,  it  did  not  occur  to  the  island- 
ers to  formulate  their  ideas  and  beliefs.  Conquerors 
and  conquered  were  both  at  much  the  same  level 
of  culture,  and  probably  the  one  borrowed  as  much 
as  the  other.  The  sudden  entrance  of  an  ethical 
system  so  highly  developed  as  the  Chinese,  and  a 
r(>ligion  so  elaborate  as  Buddhism,  compelled  adjust- 
meat  and  formulation  in  so  simple  a  cult  as  the  god- 
way.  The  Kami  no  michi,  like  almost  everything 
else;  in  the  primitive  tongue,  even  nouns  and  verbs 
being  given  a  synonym,  received  the  new  name 
Shinto.  In  time,  and  under  the  stimulus  of  political 
pretext,  rituals  were  developed,  dogmas  established, 
and  worship  regulated.  By  spiritual  osmose,  Shinto 
first  absorbed,  and  then  incorporated,  much  in  the 
imported  systems  that  had  emanated  from  the  great 
minds  of  China  and  India. 
The  god-path,  or  tradition  handed  down  from  the 

159 


160  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

superiors,  had  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  ethics. 
All  the  words  relating  to  marriage,  and  most  of  those 
which  express  decency,  are  Chinese.  In  Japanese 
mythology,  one  can  quickly  detect  the  difference 
between  the  native  and  the  Chinese  way  of  telling  a 
story.  Confucianism  and  Buddhism  mightily  enriched 
the  native  religion.  When,  later,  Shinto,  except  by  a 
very  few  thinkers,  and  in  some  old  temples,  was 
apparently  absorbed,  and  for  a  thousand  years  for- 
gotten in  Buddhism,  or  Riobu  (mixed,  or  double- 
faced)  Shinto,  it  is  no  wonder  that  European  students 
mistook  the  nature  and  phenomena  of  the  primitive 
faith  of  Japan.  The  Revival  of  Pure  Shinto  in  the 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  was  mainly  the 
work  of  a  very  few  scholars,  who  enriched  native 
literature,  but  hardly  influenced  the  people.  With 
the  restoration  of  18G8,  the  primeval  embers  under 
the  Government  bellows  blazed  up  as  in  a  flicker. 
The  war  with  Russia  —  a  life-and-death  struggle  for 
national  existence  —  focussed  all  patriotic  feeling 
to  the  point  of  flame.  Then  the  power  of  Shinto,  as 
a  reservoir  of  national  tradition  and  sentiment, 
rather  than  the  potency  of  a  rehgion  for  individual 
souls,  was  revealed. 

Whatever  Shinto  may  have  become  since  the  days 
of  books  and  in  the  presence  of  historic  religions,  it 
is  well  to  consider  its  evolution  from  the  humblest 
beginnings,  before  the  worship  of  nature  was  wedded 
to  the  dogma  of  the  Mikado's  sovereignty  and  his 
heavenly  origin.     Some  such  steps  of  development 


CHURCH  AND  STATE  161 

re  noted  below  we  can  trace  from  the  days  when, 
en  the  notions  of  the  Ainu  and  the  Yamato 
oTk",  there  was  Httle  (HfTerence,   for  both  were  on 
much  the  same  levels  of  spiritual  culture. 

In  the  days  of  the  mounds  and  before  the  dolmens, 
the  sacred  place  consisted  of  an  enclosure  of  sakaki 
trees.  The  images  of  the  gods  were  probably  carved 
posts,  and  before  them  the  simple  offerings  were  made, 
prayer  being  as  childlike  and  as  restricted  in  expres- 
sion of  wants  as  among  savages  everywhere.  The 
powers  of  nature,  sun,  moon,  and  storm,  were  one 
after  another  deified.  Mythology  grew  apace  with 
apotheosis.  Then  genealogies  were  manufactured  in 
order  to  link  together  the  heavenly  and  the  earthly. 
Before  a.d.  645,  the  underlying  idea  of  government 
was  that  it  was  a  family  affair,  the  Mikado  being  the 
head  of  a  clan.  The  fiction  prevailed  that  all  were 
in  some  way  related  to  the  Mikado  and  the  gods, 
heavenly  or  earthly.  In  these  primeval  days,  before 
th(-  later  idea  of  Throne,  conquest,  and  divinity  of  the 
Mikado  had  been  thought  of,  and  the  whole  elaborate 
ritual  and  machinery  of  the  later  mikadoism,  as  well 
as  of  true  ancestor- worship  were  unknown,  ethics 
were  in  germ  only.  The  clan-chief  or  Mikado  was 
as  unmoral  as  was  Tecumseh,  who  claimed  the  sun  as 
his  father  and  the  earth  as  his  mother.  Then  the 
festivals  and  the  system  did  not  centre  in  the  Mikado, 
as  they  do  now,  for  he  was  not  responsible  for  the 
morals  of  his  people.  The  Yamato  clan-chief  hunted, 
went  to  war,  and  was  altogether  as  one  among  his 


162  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

people,  as  was  an  Iroquois  Indian  chief.  There  was 
not  a  suggestion  of  his  being  other  than  a  kami ;  that 
is,  a  superior  person,  high  in  rank. 

Shinto,  says  Mr.  Y.  Okakura,  consisted  in  a  number 
of  primitive  rites,  such  as  the  recital  of  the  liturgy,  the 
offering  of  eatables  to  the  departed  spirits  of  deified 
ancestors,  patriarchal,  tribal,  or  national;  that  is, 
^'nothing  more  than  a  form  of  ancestor- worship  based 
on  the  central  belief  in  the  divine  origin  of  the  im- 
perial fine." 

The  essence  of  ritual  Shinto  was  cleanliness,  and  its 
liturgy  concerned  purification.  Thanksgiving,  clean- 
liness, prayer,  offerings,  conformity  to  the  accepted 
rule  of  communal  life  —  these  formed  the  staple 
of  the  primitive  god-path ;  that  is,  Shinto  meant  the 
tradition  of  the  superiors  in  old  time,  which  it  was 
death  to  defy.  It  was  the  religion  of  all  outdoors. 
^'Monthly  and  yearly  festivals  are  observed  within 
the  divine  enclosure  of  a  guardian  god.  .  .  .  How 
different  is  this  jovial  feeling  from  that  gloomy 
sensation,  with  which  we  approach  a  Buddhist 
temple,  recalling  death  and  the  misery  of  Hfe  from 
every  corner  of  its  mysterious  interior,"  writes 
Y.  Okakura. 

Such  a  cult  sufficed  for  simple  hunters  and  fisher- 
men, and  even  when  they  had  mastered  the  rudi- 
ments of  agriculture,  but  were  without  formulated 
ambitions  or  definite  programme  of  conquest.  Heaven 
and  earth  were  then  very  near.  In  the  High  Plain 
of  Ama,  the  bright  kami  lived.     Neither  it  nor  they 


CHURCH   AND  STATE  163 

were  very  far  away.  The  highly  abstract  ideas  of 
time  and  space  were  not  yet  formed  in  the  primitive 
mind.  But  when  a  new  state  of  society  based  on  rice 
culture  found  itself  alongside  of  an  alien  race  con- 
sisting only  of  hunters,  and  the  savages  delighted  in 
raids  upon  this  agricultural  community,  breaking 
down  sluices  and  field  boundaries,  trampling  or  root- 
ing up  crops  and  defiling  habitations,  new  thoughts 
arose  and  methods  of  defence  were  cogitated. 

All  primitive  lowly  life  is  intensely  religious,  and 
its  acts,  sanctions,  and  methods  of  preservation  mean 
orthodoxy,  adherence  to  the  divine  legend,  loyalty  to 
the  kami.  When  not  content  with  reprisal  the  idea 
of  conquest  was  conceived  and  its  purpose  determined, 
then  dogma  was  formulated.  Those  who  considered 
that  they  had  a  superior  civilization  as  against 
savagery  took  a  religious  view  of  the  necessities  of  the 
case.  They  considered  that  the  gods  were  on  their 
sidc^     They  must  justify  their  warfare  and  conquest. 

Hence  the  evolution  of  the  dogma  that  the  con- 
quering race  were  originally  from  Heaven  and  that 
the  Mikado  was  a  descendant  of  Sky-Shine,  now 
become  the  Sun-Goddess.  Hence  the  creation  of 
genealogies,  the  gathering  of  the  scattered  myths 
into  one  body,  not  only  with  all  the  indecent  episodes 
(of  whose  flavor  and  appearance  to  modern  minds, 
the  first  tellers  and  listeners  were  innocently  oblivious), 
but  also  with  the  pedigrees  which  linked  tribes, 
famihes,  and  guilds  to  the  kami,  or  divine  personages. 
Hence,  also,-  the  numerous  and  late  interpolations  in 


164  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

the  Records  and  Chronicles,  which  give  ennobling 
status  to  certain  persons  or  clans,  because  of  their 
descent  from  the  kami. 

In  thus  formulating  nature  worship  and  linking  it 
to  the  Imperial  family  and  undergirding  the  Throne, 
the  god-way  was  transformed  into  a  political  engine, 
and  superior  dogma  matched  superior  weapons.  It 
was  taught  that  the  earlier  mikados,  led  off  by  Jimmu, 
and  those  who  subdued  the  land,  were  from  Heaven, 
while  the  conquered,  who  must  obey,  were  earth-born, 
and  their  kami  or  chiefs  were  at  their  best  but  earthly 
deities.  When  further  the  Mikado  was  separated 
from  all  but  the  highest  functions,  at  once  exalted 
and  hidden  in  mystery,  made  invisible  and  unap- 
proachable and  his  previous  functions  relegated  to 
bureaucracy,  all  the  festivals  and  liturgies  were 
made  to  centre  in  him.  The  old  god-path  or  follow- 
ing in  the  ways  of  the  kami  became  Shinto,  the  State 
religion,  and  it  was  made  binding  among  the  aboriginal 
people  at  the  point  of  the  sword. 

In  thus  affirming  that  Shinto  was  as  surely  propa- 
gated by  the  sword  as  was  Islam,  we  remember  that 
there  was  no  book  such  as  was  offered  as  an  alterna- 
tive to  the  scimitar,  neither  were  there  as  yet  the 
dazzling  splendors  of  Aryan  and  Hindu  religion  which 
Buddhism  brought,  or  the  Confucian  scheme  of  ethics 
which  so  charms  the  cultured  mind.  Nevertheless 
it  is  true  that  with  the  Yamato  people  for  many 
centuries,  conquest  and  the  tenets  of  Shinto  were 
only  two  sides  of  the  same  fact.     The  rituals  which 


CHURCH   AND  STATE 


165 


one  may  study  in  Mr.  Satow's  translations  show  what 
were  sin  and  offences,  and  what  were  holiness  and 
life  acceptable  to  the  kami.  In  primitive  Japan 
history  and  religion  reflect  each  other. 

ere  were  in  these  ante-Buddhist  and  pre-Chinese 
ays,  no  such  thing  as  ancestor-worship  as  it  is  and 
was  understood  in  China.  There  was  the  deification 
and  worship  of  remote  ancestors,  —  of  the  clan  or 
nation,  —  but  not  of  the  immediate  progenitors  of 
one's  family;  nor  indeed  could  there  be,  when  family 
life  was  not  yet  organized.  True  ancestor-worship 
in  Japan  is  a  Chinese  importation,  as  are  the  terms 
relating  to  marriage.  Ancestor-worship  in  early 
Nippon  meant  worship  of  some  far-off  mythical  an- 

r  who  was  a  deity  —  the  very  reverse  of  the 

ry  and  practice  of  ancestor-worship  in  China. 
H(3nce,  those  fruits  of  the  differing  systems  in  Dai 

on  and  the  Middle  Kingdom  that  are  visible 
o-aay.  In  China  there  is  an  intense  family  life,  but 
little  or  no  patriotism,  while  yet  race-pride  is  of  the 
strongest.  In  Japan  the  family  tie  is  loose,  the  general 
status  of  organization  of  the  family  is  but  slightly 
above  that  in  the  Homeric  stage,  whil<'  yet  there  is 
universal  and  burning  patriotism. 

Kie  can  almost  feel  that  all  of  the  feeling  inspired 
he  ancient  Japanese  spirit,  Shinto,  is  summed  up 
in  the  ode  of  Omi  Okura,  in  a.d.  733,  on  the  departure 
of  an  embassy  to  China.  Mr.  Chamberlain  has  given 
it  in  English  verse,  but  Mr.  Dickins  translates  it 
literally,  thus :  — 


Henc 

to-oa 


166  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

*'  From  the  God's  own  foretime  hath  run  the  ancient  story- 
How  Heaven-shining  Yamato  hath  been  ever  of  lands  the 

fairest, 
Of  lands  the  most  divine,  in  speech  most  em'nent 
Of  all  lands  that  under  broad  heaven  lie  —  so  have  our 

fathers  told  us, 
And  in  this  age  we,  before  our  own  eyes  see  we,  how  true 

the  tale  is, 
And  with  our  own  souls  know  we  how  true  the  tale  is." 

The  delightful  antinomies  in  human  nature  are 
finely  illustrated  in  the  writings  of  Shinto  zealots, 
ancient  poets  and  modern  fire-swallowers  who  blaze 
at  the  idea  of  their  divine  rulers  being  common 
sinners  in  need  of  repentance.  Hitomaro  in  a.d.  737 
wrote :  — 

"  Japan  is  not  a  land  where  men  need  pray, 
For  'tis  itself  divine." 

This  is  exactly  like  the  never-washing  Ainu,  who 
think  we  and  the  Japanese  must  be  very  dirty  to 
wish  to  bathe  often.  The  early  ritualists  of  Shinto 
wrote  out  voluminous  and  prolix  liturgies.  The 
seventeenth-century  revivalists  of  Pure  Shinto  argued 
that  morals  were  invented  by  the  Chinese,  because 
they  were  an  immoral  people,  while  the  Japanese 
being  pure  in  heart  and  naturally  perfect  did  not 
need  codes  of  ethics.  The  whole  nation  claims 
divine  ancestry.  The  gods  being  on  earth,  why  raise 
prayers  to  Heaven?  Shinto  is  the  religion  of  fairy- 
land, yet  grave  professors,  especially  the  ''Jingoes" 
of  Japan,  are  most  vehemently  zealous  for  its  tenets. 


CHAPTER  XII 

WOMAN   THE   CONSERVATOR 

progress  of  the  race  depends  upon  man.  The 
conservation  of  what  has  been  attained  belongs  to 
woman.  If  the  positive  advance  of  humanity  de- 
pended upon  the  female  portion  of  it,  there  would  be 
few  forward  steps;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  if  we  had 
to  trust  to  the  males  to  keep  and  fix  what  had  been 
won,  we  should  go  backwards.  Not  only  in  love  and 
the  tender  passions,  hut  in  the  strong,  deep  common 
sense  of  humanity,  woman  is  the  great  conservator. 

Air  history,  including  the  Japanese,  which  is  normal 
with  that  of  the  rest  of  the  world,  teaches  that  man 
is  the  maker  of  now  paths,  but  that  woman,  in  home, 
in  society,  in  literature,  and  ixTiunnont  sfx-ial  institu- 
tions, holds  the  gains. 

Especially  in  the  matter  of  the  capital,  or  Court 
residence,  and  with  Buddhism,  the  mother  of  the 
Japanese  home  and  of  Japanese  civilization,  do  we 
find  woman's  instinct  signally  shown.  It  was  under 
the  reign  of  the  vigorous  Empress  Gemmio  that  the 
capital  in  a.d.  709  was  fixed  at  Nara.  Through 
seven  reigns,  or  until  a.d.  784,  it  remained  the  seat 
of  government  and  of  the  pedagogic  and  propagative 

167 


168  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

centre  of  the  new  Aryan  faith.  Hitherto  the  mikados 
were  nomads,  and  their  wooden  and  straw  huts  were 
as  movable  as  the  habitations  of  prairie  Indians. 
Death  was  the  great  compeller  and  a  corpse  the  potent 
expeller.  Provision  having  been  made  for  sepulture 
in  the  dolmen,  the  torch  was  applied  to  the  old 
palace,  and  the  level  waste  of  ashes  was  left  for  a 
more  auspicious  site.  Horror  of  the  dead  and  the 
unclean  drove  even  the  Imperial  occupant  away,  and 
fire  made  pure  the  site  once  occupied.  When, 
however,  the  richer  and  nobler  religion  and  the  higher 
civilization  came  in,  hand  in  hand,  woman's  instinct 
saw  the  need  of  settled  life,  which  even  the  episode 
of  individual  death  need  not  disturb.  In  a.d.  794, 
another  site  was  chosen  for  the  Imperial  city,  which, 
though  given  various  names,  was  popularly  called  the 
Miako  or  Kio.  For  over  a  millennium,  Kioto  re- 
mained the  seat  of  the  Mikados,  though  one  cannot 
with  accuracy  say,  of  the  Government,  which  moved 
to  the  once  ''far  East,"  the  Kuanto. 

Even  to  this  day  one  sees  as  in  a  mirror  the  past 
history  of  Japan  in  customs  preserved  in  modern 
days.  The  Ainu  fetich  of  bone  or  feather,  carefully 
preserved  in  many  wrappings  in  the  box  near  the 
sacred  eastern  window,  is  the  prototype  of  the  precious 
treasures,  hidden  and  secret,  kept  in  the  Shinto  shrine, 
under  innumerable  wrappings  of  silk  and  brocade. 
The  relic  has  won  a  glory  from  its  far-ofT  origin.  So 
the  Ainu  and  the  Yamato  notions  of  taboo,  fear  of 
the  dead,  and  disHke  of  living  in  the  same  place  that 


WOMAN  THE  CONSERVATOR  169 

had  harbored  a  corpse,  were  much  on  the  same  level 
in  both  culture  camps,  and  regard  for  the  ghosts 
is  still  powerful  in  Japan.  The  movements  from 
place  to  place,  making  scores  of  known  capitals,  was 
not  surprising,  but  Buddhism  more  than  anything 
else  was  responsible  for  settled  conditions  of  Court 
life.  Moreover,  it  soon  became  the  zealous  determi- 
nation to  make  the  nation  quickly  and  wholly  Bud- 
dhist. It  took  possession  of  the  Mikados,  male  and 
female.  This  purpose  was  carried  out  in  a  manner 
often  more  forcible  than  elegant,  and  at  times  more 
for  the  benefit  of  the  bonzes  than  of  the  people,  and 
the  results  wrought  were  not  wholly  in  either  paid 
toil  or  involuntary  receptivity.  Among  hundreds  of 
references  in  the  Chronicles  to  the  *' forced  labor" 
in  l)ehalf  of  this  or  that  Imperial  or  Buddhistic  service, 
we  read  many  also  like  these:  — 

''The  Buddhist  priest  Kwansei  was  given  a  present 
of  iifteen  Jiiki  of  coarse  silk,  thirty  bundles  of  floss 
silk,  and  fifty  tan  of  cloth."  In  these  days  cloth  and 
woven  stuff,  or  its  raw  material,  was  as  currency. 

''Thirty  houses  were  granted  as  a  sustenance  fief 
to  Bendo,  a  priest  of  the  Great  Temple  of  the  Great 
Palace."  In  the  chapters  illustrating  the  growth  of 
feudalism,  we  shall  see  how  rapidly  rich  grew  the 
relisjious  houses  and  how  in  time  political  power  was 
coveted  and  seized,  so  that  while  pure  religion  died 
of  fatty  degeneration,  the  people  groaned  under  the 
double  feudalization  of  helmet  and  cowl,  baron  and 
abbot 


170  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

The  New  Japan  of  rapid  growth  —  the  name  was 
officially  notified  to  Korea  in  a.d.  670  —  came  early 
under  feminine  influence,  both  for  weal  and  for  woe. 
Incidentally  it  shows  how  highly  these  early  Yamato 
folk  estimated  their  women.  Eight  of  the  ten  em- 
presses in  the  line  of  Mikados  ruled  between  a.d.  593 
and  769,  the  other  two  not  coming  on  the  stage  of 
action  until  after  the  seventeenth  century.  Like  the 
ancient  Yamato  straight  sword,  this  influence  was 
two-edged.  Not  only  did  female  Mikados,  while 
doing  nobler  things  for  humanity,  make  soft  the  life 
of  effeminate  men,  but  the  abuse  of  what  was  possible 
under  their  reign,  introduced  the  original  sin  of 
weakness  into  Japanese  life  and  literature.  In  this 
hothouse  of  lovely  feminine  influences  many  growths, 
strange,  odd,  and  curious,  became  visible,  and  were 
carefully  reared,  but  the  type  of  man  cultivated  was 
not  that  of  the  alert  and  strenuous  sort,  neither  was  it 
of  finest  fibre  or  noblest  ideal.  Moreover,  there  was 
introduced  into  life  at  the  seat  of  government  that 
element  of  the  boudoir  influences  which  blotted  out 
the  clear  distinction  between  the  Court  and  the 
Government  —  curse  alike  of  old  Yedo  and  modern 
Korea  —  against  which  both  the  Kamakura  move- 
ment of  1184  and  that  of  Tokio  in  1868  were  violent 
protests.  The  Constitution  of  1889  banishes  women 
forever  from  the  Throne. 

How  curious  the  contrast  between  the  capital  and 
the  frontier !  In  the  one  was  the  luxurious,  art- 
loving  circle  of  priests,  scholars,  pubUc  functionaries, 


WOMAN  THE  CONSERVATOR  171 

cultivated  and  brilliant  women,  who  became  the 
mothers  of  literature  and  the  nurses  of  belles-lettres, 
all  headed  by  a  Mikado  becoming  more  and  more  a 
monk,  and  vanishing  by  slow  evolution  into  an  in- 
visible god.  Outside  the  one  City  Royal,  there  was 
little  to  satisfy  the  man  of  taste,  while  far  away  on  the 
battle  line,  in  the  east  and  north,  was  growing  up  a 
race  of  stalwart  warriors. 

In  time  the  spectre  of  a  new  and  overshadowing 
capital  and  seat  of  real  government  in  the  Eastern 
wilds  began  to  loom  up  against  ''the  ninefold  circle 
of  flowers,"  but  few  could  at  first  see  the  rising  storm. 
The  palace  folk  isolated  the  real  Miako,  making  of  it 
virtually  a  cloister  and  their  Mikado  a  name  and 
shadow,  while  near  the  Eastern  Ocean  shore,  holding 
both  sword  and  purse  and  keeping  alive  manly  dis- 
e  and  strenuous  achievement,  the  frontiersmen 
to  rear  in  the  wilderness  a  city  of  a  million  souls, 
loto  and  Kamakura  were  to  face  each  other  in 
y,  and  Throne  and  Camp  be  separated  for  nearly 
ennium  even  from  1184  to  1868. 
For,  while  at  first  in  holy  zeal  and  glow  of  sincerity 
tte  retiring  from  the  world  devoted  themselves 
|feligion  and  their  profession  stood  for  reality,  it 
was  not  long  before  human  nature  asserted  itself. 
Poverty,  sacrifice,  abstinence,  purity,  there  were  at 
first,  but  all  too  soon  retreat  from  the  world  meant 
lust,  debauchery,  hypocrisy,  and  wire-pulling.  The 
abdicator  of  the  Throne  still  pulled  the  wires.  Ho-o, 
Lord  of  the  Vow,  or  Cloistered  Emperor,  the  term  once 


Kioto 


■^ 


172  JAPANESE  NATION   IN  EVOLUTION 

redolent  of  self-sacrifice  and  holiness,  began  to  mean 
intermeddler  and  real  ruler.  The  shorn  head,  with 
ear  ever  open  to  spies  and  alert  for  spoils  to  bestow 
on  favorites,  suggested  the  invisible  spider  in  the  hole 
lurking  for  victims,  rather  than  the  meditating  devotee 
upon  the  unflecked  lotus-flower  of  Nirvana.  With 
many  a  man  and  woman,  in  or  out  of  rank,  monkery 
meant  deviltry  and  nunhood  unchastity.  Bane  and 
blessing  for  all  time  was  left  to  Japan's  inheritance 
by  this  era  of  a  nominal  ''Contemptus  Mundi." 

Moreover,  the  by-products  of  this  professed  retire- 
ment from  the  world  were  as  detestable  as  they  were 
noteworthy.  Polygamy  being  an  institution  imperial 
as  well  as  common,  the  Mikado's  offspring  soon  be- 
came troublesomely  numerous.  How  to  provide  for 
and  employ  or  keep  out  of  mischief  these  princely 
idlers  grew  to  be  a  chronic  problem.  As  long  as  the 
thoughts  of  these  titled  supernumeraries  were  absorbed 
in  their  pretty  women,  foot-ball,  poetry,  art,  or  the 
luxury  of  the  capital,  they  did  not  prove  very  trouble- 
some. Except  as  centres  of  plots  and  the  tools  of 
intriguers,  they  were  harmless  ciphers.  But  when 
they  went,  as  they  often  did,  to  the  distant  provinces 
and  began  to  accumulate  landed  estates,  or  to  set  up 
domains  that  were  virtually  rivals  to  the  Kioto  gov- 
ernment, they  were  in  the  highest  degree  dangerous 
to  the  public  welfare. 

The  economic  value  of  the  Ainu  land  in  the  East 
lately  opened  to  civilization  became  strikingly  mani- 
fest in  the  eighth  century.     In  the  spring  of  a.d.  708, 


WOMAN  THE  CONSERVATOR  173 

copper  from  Musashi,  the  first  found  in  Nippon,  was 
ofifered  to  the  Empress  Gemmio.  In  honor  of  this 
new  gift  to  the  nation,  she  named  the  year  period  of 
her  reign  (708-715)  Wado;  that  is,  Japanese  copper. 
The  copper  mines  of  Adziima,  seemingly  inexhaustible, 
have,  during  a  millennium,  furnished  to  Japan  the 
metallic  basis  of  her  forests  of  metal  images  and 
statues,  and  even  in  our  day  the  Ashiwo  mines  are 
among  the  richest  in  the  world.  Steadily  the  new 
I'.astern  Country  developed.  The  Ainu  both  of 
Alutsu  and  Echigo  revolted  in  709,  but  after  peace 
2,  the  great  north  land  was  divided  into  Mutsu 
Dewa.  In  713  new  roads  were  opened  in  Mino 
and  Shinano  and  a  manual  or  encyclopiedia  of  geog- 
raphy compiled.  This  book  gave  a  description  of  all 
the  villages,  mountains,  rivers,  valleys,  plains,  trees, 
birds,  and  cjuadrupeds  of  Japan. 

Though  no  longer  extant,  this  Government  publica- 
tion revealed  the  process  of  hi.story  making  and  the 
obliteration  of  Aryan  and  Ainu  names,  in  place  of 
which  new  ones  were  officially  given.  The  process 
did  but  follow  precedents  and  continued  the  method 
for  coming  ages.  The  Japanese  beat  the  Greeks  in 
their  passion  for  euphemism,  while  excelling  the 
British  who  have  erased  the  names  of  Dutch  and  other 
pioneers  and  explorers  in  favor  of  their  own  people. 
Every  witness  of  disaster  was  banished,  all  unpleasant 
suggestions  removed,  and  every  ugly-looking  name 
given  oblivion,  if  possible,  in  the  new  Japan.  The 
edict  of  the  Erapress  commanded  that  good  or  lucky 


174  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Chinese  characters  should  be  affixed  to  the  names 
of  all  provinces,  districts,  and  villages.  In  a  word, 
these  Yamato  people  first  put  their  own  language  into 
a  Chinese  strait  jacket  and  then  proceeded  to  wipe  out 
every  Aryan  or  Ainu  name,  keeping  up  the  process 
in  both  Yezo  land  and  Yezo  island  even  to  the  twen- 
tieth century,  to  the  swamping  of  true  history. 

Astonishing  was  the  intellectual  development  of 
the  Yamato  people  in  the  Hei-an  era  (794-1186), 
when  in  the  new  city  the  mental  soil,  enriched  as  by 
a  Nile  flood  with  the  accumulated  culture  of  India  and 
China,  gave  forth  more  than  seven  years  of  plenty, 
and  the  new  exotics  burst  into  bloom  of  art  and 
literature.  The  dual  civilization,  while  having  a  rich 
material  basis,  was  one  in  w^hich  the  moral  and 
spiritual  elements  at  first  dominated.  Within  a 
century,  we  have  notable  additions  to  the  catalogue  of 
things  for  use  and  comfort.  Copper  was  mined 
abundantly.  Besides  coins  of  gold  and  silver,  we 
read  of  the  emission  in  a.d.  796,  818,  835,  848,  859, 
870,  889,  907,  958,  of  copper  ''cash,"  each  mintage 
bearing  a  new  legend  for  the  people.  These  entries 
speak  volumes  for  the  extension  of  trade  and  the  arts 
of  peace,  and  lively  traffic  opened  to  the  East  Land. 
The  introduction  of  cotton,  of  tea,  of  water-mills, 
and  of  various  other  devices  of  man  and  products 
of  nature,  were  also  within  this  era. 

The  composition  of  books  on  the  Chinese  model  — 
for  it  was  to  be  left  to  the  women  in  later  days  to 
produce  true  Japanese  literature  in  .belles-lettres  — 


WOMAN  THE  CONSERVATOR  175 

proceeded  apace  with  advance  in  material  improve- 
ment. Great  monuments  of  law  and  learning  mark 
the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries.  Stimulated  by  the 
noble  Chinese  models,  perennial  in  the  Confucian  and 
Mencian  classics,  and  by  the  living  literature  of  the 
Sung  and  Tang  age,  the  Yamato  men  employed  their 
pens  first  at  history  and  jurisprudence.  In  809,  as 
tradition  avers,  the  hirakana,  or  running  script,  was 
invented  by  Kobo.  More  probably  this  system  of 
handwriting  was  not  the  work  of  one  man,  or  of 
sudden,  but  rather  of  gradual  evolution.  Pails  of 
certain  ideographs,  easily  adapted  for  rapid  and 
connected  penmanship  in  the  ''grass  character" 
st;^le,  were  selected  and  used  for  a  syllabary. 

the  ways  of  making  human  speech  visible  are 
Fee,  comprised  in  the  ideogram  or  logogram,  in  the 
Ikble,  or  tlie  phonetic  sign,  —  that  is,  in  the  writing 
■eas  or  words,  —  of  compound  sounds  or  of  single 
vocables,  and  these  three  are  found  in  China,  Japan, 
and  Korea,  each  country  excelling  in  a  single  kind. 
While  Korea  has  a  true  alphabet,  Japan  has  a  sylla- 
bary. Hence  it  is  impossible  for  Japanese  to  write 
foreign  names  or  words  correctly,  with  neither  defi- 
ciency nor  plethora.  Hence,  also,  a  knowledge  of 
■spoken  language  of  China  to  one  in  Japan,  or 
W versa,  of  Japan  in  China,  is  of  no  value  whatever, 
tliough  with  pen  and  pencil,  the  educated  of  the 
countries,  or  of  all  Chinese  Asia,  can  communi- 
e  freely, 
he  later  schools  of  art  were  those  of  the  early 


mUF 

^^tnree 


UJOUt 

cafe  1 


176  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Chinese  style  (1351  to  1758);  the  modern  Chinese 
school  (1732-1832);  the  reaHstic  or  vulgar  school 
which  began  with  Iwasa  about  1595,  but  developed 
in  the  eighteenth  century  to  amazing  proportions, 
culminating  in  Hokusai  (1760-1849)  and  his  pupils. 

Yet  with  this  primal  outflowering  in  the  Hei-an 
era  of  the  national  genius  in  art  and  learning,  there 
was  needed  interpretation,  and  the  new  phases  of 
intellect  and  feeling  found  this  in  woman's  genius. 
Men  had  expressed  political  and  social  custom  in 
law  codes.  They  had  striven  to  tell  the  story  of 
human  action  and  set  it  in  the  form  of  the  literature 
of  knowledge  and  erudition.  The  interpreters  who 
came  with  a  lighter  touch  and  deeper  intuition,  and 
who  in  the  vernacular  idiom  gave  true  expression  of 
the  spirit  of  the  age,  were  of  the  other  sex.  The  males 
were  learned,  but  stilted  or  ponderous.  Woman's 
wit  changed  the  situation  and  gave  to  the  little  world 
of  Ya,mato  its  belles-lettres.  Diaries,  novels,  pictures 
of  life  and  manners  in  vigorous  prose  flowed  from 
the  pen  of  the  women  who  created  the  literary  lan- 
guage of  Japan. 

This  literary  triumph  was  not  the  first,  the  last,  or 
the  greatest  of  woman's  achievements  in  Japan. 
The  historic  page  is  rich  in  tableaux  of  her  heroism, 
sacrifice,  wit,  and  wisdom.  In  humbling,  even  de- 
grading her  in  later  days,  the  Japanese  were  decided 
Mongohan. 

One  of  the  first  and  best  of  those  who  made  the 
"woman's  style"  —  which  many  a  masculine  author 


WOMAN  THE  CONSERVATOR 


177 


imitated,  in  order  to  secure  popularity  for  his  com- 
position —  was  Murasaki  Shikibu,  who  died  a.d.  992. 
She  wrote  the  romance  of  Prince  Genji  and  his  amours 
(Genji  Monogatari)  with  its  minute  details  of  daily 
life  in  the  palace.  Rich  in  local  color,  brilliant  in 
description,  photographically  true  to  the  ruling  ideas 
and  customs  of  the  age  in  a  very  refined  and  very 
corrupt  Court,  this  romance  is  without  peer  and  its 
diction  is  the  standard  of  pure  Japanese  in  the 
mediicval  age.  This  era  (800-1186)  is  that  of  polite 
literature  in  Japanese,  as  distinct  from  the  works  of 
ition  in  the  Chinese  character  and  style, 
o  resume  our  thread  of  narration  in  order  of  time, 
note  the  production  of  law-books  and  manuals 
story  in  almost  regular  alternation.  In  a.d.  820 
833  appear  collections  of  laws.  The  adoption  of 
Chinese  calendar  shows  that  mathematicians  and 
nomers  are  at  work.  In  871  a  legislative  manual 
mpleted.  A  college  of  learned  men  produce  the 
rical  library  known  as  the  Six  National  Records, 
and  on  the  basis  of  these  original  writings,  Michizane 
piled  a  work  more  popular  in  character,  in  two 
dred  of  the  pamphlet-like  volumes  so  common  in 
Japan.  In  90.")  an  anthology  of  verse  appeared, 
years  907,  914,  and  927  are  notable  for  books  on 
jurisprudence  which  are  still  famous.  This  part  of  the 
Hei-an  age,  from  the  sixth  to  the  tenth  century,  is 
especially  the  era  of  Chinese  learning. 

In  the  same  centurv,  and  almost  parallel  with  the 


178  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

painting.  Michizane  is  reckoned  among  artists  as 
well  as  among  authors,  but  to  Kanaoka,  who  flour- 
ished about  A.D.  880,  is  awarded  the  honor  of  being 
called  first  among  the  great  painters  of  the  Yamato 
School.  Four  or  five  of  his  pieces  which  still  remain 
are  accounted  authentic.  Other  famous  men  of  the 
brush  and  palette  were  Kintada,  a.d.  950;  Kimmochi, 
980;  Hirotake,  and  five  others  before  the  fourteenth 
century,  who  are  considered  the  primitives  or  pioneers 
of  Japanese  art. 

The  true  Yamato  line  of  painters  which  begins  with 
Motomitsu,  pupil  of  Kanaoki,  about  a.d.  1000,  was 
destined  to  enjoy  eight  centuries  of  glory  and  fame. 
This  succession,  including  the  names  of  nearly  fifty 
famous  men,  is  usually  classified  in  five  divisions, 
in  order  of  time;  the  products  of  the  Tosa  artists 
(1230-1700  +)  bemg  perhaps  the  most  brilliant  and 
vigorous.  The  Tosa  school  is  remarkable  for  its 
lavish  use  of  gold  and  splendor  of  color.  The  Hei-an 
era  is  the  golden  age  of  Japan  in  more  than  one  sense. 
One  must  read  the  Manyo  poems  to  enter  into  the 
feelings  of  the  lovers  of  luxury  and  literary  dalliance 
in  the  City  Royal.  Scores  of  dainty  stanzas  were 
written  to  friends  on  the  distant  frontier,  in  Ainu 
land,  or  for  bon  voyage  to  departing  governors. 
The  Tosa  Nikki  is  one  of  many  dehghtful  diaries  of 
travel  which  picture  the  methods  of  travel  and 
reveal  the  heart  pain  of  those  who  must  needs  be 
absent  from  dear  Kioto.  Their  fine  style  has  proved 
the  salt  of  preservation,  for  age  does  not  in  their  case 


WOMAN  THE  CONSERVATOR 


179 


wither.     They  are  still  among  the  fresh  flowers  of 
literature. 

Against  the  sentimentalism  of  the  Fujiwara  period, 
before  the  rise  of  manliness,  stalwart  ideals,  epic 
poetry,  and  music  of  the  Kamakura  period,  there 
were  voices  raised  against  the  nepotism,  political  and 
social  corruption  and  effeminacy  of  the  Court  and  the 
ring  of  politicians  who  dominated  it.  One  of  these 
was  Michizane  (845-903),  who  plead  for  more  manli- 
ness and  independence  in  the  Emperors,  development 
of  the  Japanese  genius,  and  abolition  of  the  custom 
of  sending  embassies  periodically  to  China.  The 
story  of  calumny,  disgrace,  and  banishment  is  one 
that  points  to  the  moral  of  the  perils  to  ''the  scholar 
in  politics"  as  against  the  ''practical  politician." 
His  name  shines  brightly  as  the  patron  of  letters,  as 
the  ancestor  of  various  daimios,  and  the  model  and 
patron  of  school  children.  His  fame  is  secure. 
Incised  on  granite  on  the  walls  of  one  of  the  noblest 
Hbrary  edifices  in  America,  "built  for  the  people," 
Michizane's  name  holds  its  place  of  honor  worthily 
with  the  world's  torch-bearers. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

IMPEKIALISM,   EXPANSION,   AND   FEUDALISM 

For  centuries,  like  China  or  the  Roman  Empire, 
Yamato  was  the  Central  State  among  many  vassals, 
or  dependencies,  in  oscillations,  alternately  of  civili- 
zation and  relaxing  of  mikadoal  power.  Gradually 
the  once  independent  sovereignties  of  Idzumo,  Tsu- 
kushi,  Koshi,  and  the  East  were  merged  in  the  one 
Central  State  of  Dai  Nippon. 

The  movement  of  population  from  Kiushiu  toward 
the  fertile  food  plain  of  Yamato,  personified  in  the 
legend  of  Jimmu,  was  probably  owing  to  pressure  of 
incomers  from  the  Continent,  or  by  overgrowth  in 
numbers  of  aboriginal  settlers.  In  any  event,  long 
after  the  sixth  century,  large  portions  of  the  south 
and  southwest  remained  to  be  brought  under  the 
Mikado's  sway  or  to  be  settled.  As  population  in- 
creased the  waste  land  was  to  be  reclaimed.  Up  to 
historic  times  there  were  but  villages  on  the  sites 
now  covered  by  large  cities,  and  only  hamlets  or 
clearings  where  towns  are  to-day  seen.  Except 
Kioto,  and  a  seaport  or  two,  cities  were  not  known 
until  the  twelfth  century. 

Not  all  the  business  in  boats  or  on  the  water  "was 

180 


IMPERIALISM,  EXPANSION,  AND  FEUDALISM     181 

(lone  by  the  honest  sailor  or  fisherman.  Piratical 
raids  were  frequent,  and  the  vikings  of  the  ocean 
coast  and  inland  seas  were  predatory  or  disorderly 
for  centuries,  winning  a  bad  name  on  the  Continent. 
The  early  name  of  the  tribes  in  Kiushiu  was  Ku- 
maso,  or  the  bear  men,  but  this  term  came  to  be 
generally  used  of  any  of  the  southern  people  who  so 
often  ''rebelled"  and  "did  not  bring  tribute"  to 
Yamato. 

To  the  Taira  warriors,  from  the  ninth  century,  was 
assigned  the  general  task  of  (juieting  all  the  south- 
west, both  on  land  and  water,  and  for  many  genera- 
tions they  gave  themselves  loyally  to  this  work  with 
valor  and  zeal. 

We  shall  now  take  up  again  the  story  of  the  con- 
(jucst  and  absorption  of  the  East  and  North. 
^^^^a  581  the  Ainu  showed  hostility  on  the  frontier, 
^^^■pding  for  their  chiefs,  the  Mikado  reminded  them 
^^^HK  as  in  his  predecessor's  reign,  the  sword  for  those 
^^^■Iwere  hostile  and  forgiveness  for  the  repentant 
(JUPPstill  the  rule."  Ringleaders  would  certainly  be 
decapitated. 

Filled  with  fear  and  awe,  Ayakasu  and  others  went 
down  into  the  middle  stream  of  the  Hatsuse  (after 
which  Admiral  Togo's  great  battleship  was  named). 
Facing  Mount  Mimoro,  where  the  Ainu  had  first  been 
settled,  and  then  for  bad  behavior  ousted,  they  rinsed 

Fttkheir  mouths  with  the  river  water  as  a  purifying 
ceremony.     Then  they  took  this  oath :  ''We  Yemishi 
f      promise  that  from  this  tinip  forward,  we,  our  children, 


182  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

and  our  children's  children  of  our  body  eighty  times 
continued,  will  serve  the  Celestial  Gate  [Mikado] 
with  sincerity  of  heart.  If  we  break  this  oath,  may 
all  the  gods  of  Heaven  and  Earth  and  also  the  spirits 
of  the  Emperors  destroy  our  race." 

Were  these  the  same  Ainu,  or  others  in  the  great 
northern  wilds,  who  in  a.d.  637  again  made  outbreak? 
They  ''rebelled  and  did  not  come  to  court."  When 
the  Mikado's  general  and  his  forces  were  sent  against 
them,  the  Ainu  defeated  them  and  drove  them  back- 
ward into  a  fortress.  "The  beaten  soldier  fears  even 
the  tops  of  the  tall  grass."  One  by  one,  the  de- 
moralized warriors  slipped  away,  leaving  the  strong- 
hold nearly  empty,  though  the  besieging  Ainu  did 
not  know  this.  There  were  several  tens  of  women  in 
the  garrison,  and  these  saved  the  day. 

The  annalist  puts  a  superb  speech  in  the  mouth  of 
the  brave  wife  who  cheered  and  upbraided  her  hus- 
band, making  him  drink  a  cup  of  sake  to  fire  his 
courage.  Girding  on  her  lord's  sword  and  marshalling 
the  women,  she  strung  ten  bows  and  bade  her  sisters 
twang  them  noisily,  so  that  the  Ainu,  still  thinking 
their  enemy  strong,  gradually  withdrew.  Thereupon 
the  general  seized  a  weapon  and  showed  fight.  The 
Mikado's  soldiers  returned  from  their  hiding-places, 
reformed  ranks,  and  attacked  the  Ainu,  ''taking 
every  one  prisoners."  Probably  a  barrow  of  heads, 
—  one  of  scores  in  Japan,  —  then  and  there  cut  off, 
marks  the  spot.  The  name  of  the  heroic  woman 
remains  in  oblivion. 


lALISM,   EXPANSION,  AND  FEUDALISM    183 

In  the  other  side  of  the  mountains,  in  the  Koshi 
or  Echizen  regions,  we  hear  less  of  bloody  fighting 
and  more  of  successful  pacific  measures.  In  a.d.  642 
it  is  recorded  that  several  thousand  Ainu,  or  Yemishi, 
made  their  submission.  Three  weeks  later  the  Gov- 
ernor-General Soga  entertained  the  Yemishi  in  his 
house  and  personally  made  kind  inquiries  after  their 
welfare.  This  Soga  was  a  Court  officer  skilful  in 
dealing  with  various  races.  In  these  seventh-century 
days  Yamato's  problem  was  one  of  absorbing  several 
races,  native  and  foreign,  and  the  governor  had  the 
oversight  of  immigration,  from  various  "frontier 
states,"  and  from  Korea  especially.  He  attended 
also  to  allotment  of  lands,  and  to  the  Ainu  who  served 
as  temple  serfs  or  in  the  public  granaries,  and  was 
apparently  one  of  the  most  efficient  commissioners  of 
emigration. 

The  Ainu  were  not  exterminated  or  driven  away. 
They  were  absorbed  in  the  Japanese  mass.  As 
progress  was  steadily  made  in  advancing  the  frontier 
of  civilization  northwards,  some  of  the  Ainu  chiefs 
were  ennobled.  There  were  in  655  at  the  Court 
ninety-nine  Northern  and  ninety-five  Eastern  Ye- 
mislii.  One  hundred  and  fifty  tribute-bearers  from 
Korea  were  also  entertained.  Caps  of  honor,  of  two 
grades  in  each  case,  were  bestowed  on  Yemishi  who 
had  come  from  places  in  Mutsu,  which  then  compre- 
hended all  of  the  eastern  part  of  Hondo  north  of 
the  thirty-seventh  parallel. 

Evidently  these  Ainu  were  as  tickled  as  were  the 


184  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Iroquois  Indians  in  Sir  William  Johnson's  day  at 
getting  laced  hats  or  scarlet  coats,  gay  with  brass 
buttons,  or  when  prairie  red  men  see  the  Great 
Father  at  Washington;  for  a  few  weeks  later  crowds 
of  Ainu  offered  homage  and  came  to  Court  with 
presents  for  the  Empress.  This  lady  lived  under  the 
new  tiled  roof  of  Asuka.  A  roof  made  of  hard  kera- 
mic  material,  besides  being  new  in  Yamato,  was  a 
sight  for  gods,  men,  and  savages. 

In  658  it  was  determined  to  reach  even  the  Ainu  of 
the  northern  island  which  is  now  called  Yezo.  Per- 
haps the  main  idea  in  view  was  to  circumnavigate 
the  northern  extremity  of  Hondo  and  map  its  coast- 
line. 

^'A  fleet  of  180  ships,"  or  oared  junks,  was  pre- 
pared and  put  under  command  of  Abe  no  Omi. 
In  the  district  of  Kita,  the  Ainu  yielded  their  sub- 
mission. In  the  bay  of  Aita  'Hhe  ships  were  drawn 
up  in  the  order  of  battle."  Then  Omuka,  an  Ainu 
chief,  declared  that  his  people's  bows  and  arrows  were 
not  for  war  against  the  Mikado's  forces,  but  for  the 
provision  of  food  in  hunting.  Thereupon  he  made 
proper  submission.  The  speech  put  in  his  mouth  by 
the  author  of  the  Chronicles  suggests  Buddhistic  no- 
tions and  the  presence  of  a  Buddhist  priest  as  sec- 
retary to  the  expedition.  Omuka  was  granted  rank, 
and  local  governors  were  appointed.  Later  Ainus 
of  the  ''Island  of  the  Ferry,"  now  called  Yezo,  were 
invited  to  a  great  feast  and  then  sent  home. 

The  ''captive  population,"   thus  newly  included 


IMPERIALISM,  EXPANSION,  AND  FEUDALISM     185 

in  the  Mikado's  domain  and  henceforth  to  be  part 
of  the  Japanese  people,  were  not  forgotten  by  the 
sov(;reign  lady  in  Asuka.  When  autumn  leaves 
were  falling,  more  than  two  hundred  Yemishi  came 
to  Court  with  presents  for  the  Empress.  The  enter- 
tainment largess  was  on  a  more  liberal  scale  than 
usual.  Besides  rank  conferred,  gifts  of  banners, 
drums,  armor,  and  weapons  were  made  and  registers 
of  the  new  population  were  appointed.  There  were 
lively  times  in  the  new  capital. 

About  this  time  the  Empress  sent  two  young 
Buddhist  priests  on  a  Korean  ship  to  China,  to  study 
under  the  groat  Doctor  of  Divinity,  Hsuang-tsang,  of 
wh(>sc  travels,  pilgrimages  to  India,  and  life  Stanis- 
laus Julien  has  written  so  fascinatingly.  After  seven- 
teen years  s[)ent  among  the  Hindus,  he  returned 
A.D.  645,  bringing  back  over  six  hundred  volumes  of 
Buddhist  scriptures  and  numerous  relics.  These  were 
the  glorious  days  of  the  Aryan  faith,  and  Japan  was 
to  be  blessed  as  being  in  the  garden  of  the  Lord 
Buddha. 

Other  visits  of  the  distant  Ainu  to  the  capital  and 
their  good  friend  are  recorded.  In  the  same  Imperial 
lady's  reign,  a  great  architectural  curiosity  was  visible 
when  these  men  with  hairy  beard  and  mustaches  came 
again  in  the  presence  of  the  Empress. 

In  Roman  Catholic  Europe  we  have  a  Bethlehem, 
a  Calvary,  or  a  Gethsemane,  in  wood  or  stone.  So  in 
the  lands  of  Buddhadom  in  many  places  is  a  Mount 
Sumi,    or,  in    Sanskrit,  Sunicri.     According   to    the 


186  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Buddhist  system,  it  is  the  central  mountain  of  the 
Universe  and  the  support  of  the  tiers  of  Heaven. 
One  of  these  educational  models  having  just  been 
built  on  the  slope  of  the  river  bank  near  the  capital, 
'Hhe  Yemishi  of  Michinoku  and  the  Koshi  [the 
Echizen  and  Sendai  region]  were  entertained." 

At  this  time,  also,  the  mariner's  compass  was  being 
made  in  Japan.  Long  known  and  used  by  land 
travellers  in  China,  and  later,  as  recorded  in  a.d.  1122, 
on  a  voyage  to  Korea,  the  Japanese  Buddhist  priest 
Chiyu,  in  a.d.  658,  made  one  of  these  ^'south-pointing 
chariots."  Who  knows  but  this  may  have  been 
used  by  "Hirafu,  warden  of  the  land  of  Koshi,"  who 
made  an  expedition  to  far-off  insular  Yezo  to  drive 
away  some  Manchius  who  had  settled  there.  The 
successful  hero  brought  back  to  the  Mikado  two  live 
white  or  polar  bears,  which  animal  may  then  have 
been  plentiful  in  Yezo  island,  which,  in  geology,  flora, 
and  fauna,  is  a  continent  different  from  Hondo. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  quote  from  the  Chronicles 
all  the  numerous  notices  of  the  Yemishi,  or  Ainu,  or 
to  tell  of  their  various  uprisings  and  the  expeditions 
sent  against  them,  or  to  point  out  in  detail  the  facts 
that  the  dialects  of  northern  Japan  and  the  geographi- 
cal names  bear  record  of  the  steadily  advancing 
frontier.  These  notices  on  the  historic  page  prove, 
withal,  that  the  white  Aryan  Ainu  were  not  driven 
away,  or  across  to  Yezo  island,  but  were  absorbed 
in  the  Japanese  nation.  After  the  last  great  battle 
near  Morioka,  Tamura  (738-811)  built  in  802  the 


IRIALISM,  EXPANSION,   AND  FEUDALISM    187 

famous  castle  of  Izawa,  in  Mutsu,  which  for  a  long 
time  was  the  military  headquarters  in  the  far  North. 
Japan's  military  system  and  even  its  feudalism 
had  their  origin  and  conditions  of  development  in 
the  activities  of  the  Ainu.  Even  the  awe-compelling 
title  of  Sci-i-tai-shogun,  or  Barbarian-quelling  Great 
General,  granted  to  Tamura,  a.d.  801,  and  to  Yori- 
tomo  in  1192,  finds  its  elements  in  the  previous  his- 
tory of  Ainu  resistance  to  the  conqueror.  Without 
the  Ainu,  there  would  have  been  no  Tycoon,  such  as 
is  known  by  title  in  the  Perry  treaty  of  1854.  At 
first  the  military  commander  sent  to  put  down  insur- 
rections, or  raids  over  the  border,  was  called  a  sho- 
gun.  To  this  the  term  sei-i,  or  barbarian-queller, 
was  added.  Some  of  the  early  generals  were  called 
Sei-Yezo  Shogun,  or  General  for  the  Conquest  of 
Yezo,  or  Ainu,  and  Tamura  was  nominated  General 
for  the  Conquest  of  the  East.  When  the  Imperial 
army  held  the  extreme  northern  end  of  Hondo,  there 
was  established  a  military  prefecture  (Chinjufu)  at 
Izawa,  in  which  there  was  a  general,  an  inspector, 
and  many  subalterns.  When  Yoritomo  obtained 
his  grand  title,  the  far  northern  military  prefecture 
was  suppressed  as  no  longer  necessary.  In  1336 
the  title  with  its  offices  and  income  was  reestablished, 
bui:  under  the  Ashikaga  it  was  finally  abolished, 
thtaigh  the  shogunate  existed  until  18G8,  when 
title,  rank,  income,  and  appurtenances  disappeared 
forever.  To-day  the  word  chinjufu  means  a  maritime 
prcjfecture,  of  which  there  are  four  in  Japan,  with 


188  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

navy-yards,  dry-dock,  and  arsenals  at  Yokoska, 
Kure,  Sasebo,  and  Maidzura. 

According  to  the  old  theory,  prior  to  645,  all  sub- 
jects of  the  Mikado  must  serve  when  necessary  in 
the  field,  and  commanders  were  expected  to  go  afar; 
but  under  the  new  regime,  the  allurements  of  luxury 
in  the  City  Royal  were  too  great  for  the  courtiers. 
The  civilians  at  Nara  or  Kioto,  dallying  with  art, 
poetry,  Chinese  philosophy,  and  Aryan  '' varieties 
of  religious  experience,"  withal  ever  alert  for  office 
and  revenue,  were  only  too  ready  to  confer  the  title 
of  General  or  Shogun  upon  the  men  of  the  Taira  or 
Minamoto  clans,  who  would  do  the  rough  work  of 
war.  Gradually  these  warrior  chiefs,  living  in  armor 
and  helmet,  became  better  known,  both  to  the  sub- 
jugated people  and  to  those  in  settled  life  far  from  the 
capital,  than  even  the  Son  of  Heaven  himself,  or  his 
civil  governors.  Every  great  military  man  had  his 
regular  followers.  As  the  revels  of  peace  and  luxury 
increased  in  Kioto,  both  sword  and  sceptre  were 
wielded  by  strong  men  on  the  frontier  and  in  the 
provinces.  The  plan  of  the  Fujiwara  regents  to  keep 
soldiers  from  serving  either  Heike  or  Genji  failed 
ignominiously.  Then  an  expedient  of  despair  was 
tried.  The  Whites  and  Reds  were  set  against  each 
other.  The  usual  result  of  playing  with  fire  followed. 
Civil  government  was  swallowed  up  in  the  flames  of 
feudal  war. 

Besides  weakness  at  the  Court  centre  there  were 
flagrant  instances  of  rank  injustice,  with  dishonesty 


IMPERIALISM,   EXPANSION,  AND   FEUDALISM     189 

and  "graft,"  rural,  urban,  and  all  the  way  through. 
When  disorder  and  rapine  broke  out  in  any  quarter 
of  the  East  and  North,  the  Genji  were  called  upon 
to  put  down  the  Ainu  and  other  ''rebels"  and  restore 
order.  This  cost  time,  toil,  money,  and  blood,  but 
when  the  warriors  applied  to  the  Court  for  reward  and 
reimbursements,  their  claims  were  ignored.  All 
attempts  to  reach  the  Emperor's  ear  and  obtain 
justice  failed,  because  the  regent,  who  was  a  Fuji- 
wara,  opened  all  petitions,  rejecting  those  he  would. 
Honors  or  rank  were  not  for  the  brave,  but  only  for 
courtiers;  the  distant  or  tlie  absent  being  always 
reckoned  in  the  wrong.  No  "mere  soldier"  could 
have  audience  with  the  Emperor. 

There  was  but  one  thing  to  do  when  money  was 
scarce  and  land  was  plenty.  In  selfnlefence  the 
warrior  leaders  made  grants  of  the  conquered  land 
to  their  followers,  who  considered  themselves  owners 
and  well  able,  in  case  of  dispute,  to  back  their  titles 
with  their  swords. 

The  economic  situation  helped  powerfully  to  de- 
a  political  system  based  on  land.  There  was 
ing  else  with  which  to  pay  the  soldiers.  The 
telltale  etymology  of  the  names,  metals,  alloys,  and 
coins  of  Old  Japan  show  how  largely  the  islanders  were 
at  first  indebted  to  China,  after  they  had  learned 
what  coinage  and  metal  currency  were.  Native 
sih'er  was  found  in  674,  but  copper  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  mined  until  after  the  Kojiki  was  written. 
13  iron,  and    in  749   gold  were  discovered  by 


me 


190  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

Korean  or  Chinese  prospectors.  It  is  evident  that 
one  of  the  most  potent  factors  in  developing  and 
settHng  the  wild  North  and  East  was  the  wealth  of 
these  districts  in  metals.  Land  when  conquered 
was  easy  to  distribute,  and  the  pacified  inhabitants 
were  utihzed  to  ^^ reclaim"  it  —  for  the  new  owner 
and  the  tax-gatherer. 

Other  causes  wrought  toward  the  complete  feu- 
dalization  of  Japan.  The  sudden  transformation  of 
the  Yamato  tribesmen  into  a  bureaucracy,  coupled 
with  the  fact  that  His  Majesty  was  allowed  a  dozen 
wives,  created  an  enormous  number  of  aspiring  office- 
seekers.  The  multitudinous  Imperial  offspring  must, 
of  course,  become  princes,  for  whom  employment 
had  to  be  found.  The  capital  not  sufficing,  these 
personages  were  sent  as  civil  functionaries  into  the 
districts  under  law,  and  into  the  conquered  territories 
of  the  Ainu  as  fast  as  pacified.  But  with  the  dis- 
tinction of  the  Inner  Country  and  the  Outer  Regions, 
there  grew  up  a  sharp  contrast  between  the  luxurious 
idleness  at  Court  and  life  on  the  frontier  amid  the 
hard-working  peasantry.  This  contrast  is  reflected 
in  the  poetry,  prose,  literature,  art,  and  proverbs  of 
an  aeon.  To  support  the  aristocracy  in  Kioto  the 
peasants  were  taxed  to  the  last  degree,  while  the 
nobles  who  had  been  brought  up  in  the  capital  and 
sent  as  office-holders  into  the  wild  country,  made  it 
the  one  aim  of  their  lives  to  secure  land  and  revenue 
quickly.  Their  intent  was  usually  to  get  back  as  soon 
as  possible  to  the  poetry  and  art,  the  splendid  temples, 


IMPERIALISM,  EXPANSION,  AND  FEUDALISM     191 

matory  intrigues,  and  the  elegant  society  of  the 
capital. 

The  military  were  not  the  only  masters  of  the  soil. 
The  civil  servants  of  the  Crown,  having  noble  blood 
and  titles,  some  of  them  even  princes,  became  expert 
in  the  seizing  of  land,  owning  vast  estates.  To  get 
land-rich,  one  had  only  to  improve  waste  territory. 
Th(\se  promoters  of  personal  pelf  were  very  keen  to 
take  advantage  of  the  laws  made  from  time  to  time 
to  the  detriment  of  the  poor  farmer.  The  land- 
holders isolated  their  outhohhngs,  surrounding  them 
with  lines  of  demarcation  in  the  shape  of  hill  or  valley, 
access  to  which  the  peasants  were  forbidden. 

Various  imperial  edicts  were  issued  to  mitigate 
this  evil,  but  they  were  not  enforced.  The  case  of 
the  peasants  was  aggravated  by  grants  of  lands  made 
in  every  province  to  noblemen,  who  were  favorites 
of  the  Emperor,  or  to  his  women,  or  nobles,  as  well  as 
to  popular  priests,  or  to  temples  renowned  for  their 
elo(^uent  bonzes  or  the  miracle-working  power  of 
their  images.  Soon  the  difference  between  the 
peasant  cultivator  and  the  country  gentleman  was 
clearly  marked.  While  the  edicts  nominally  restricted 
the  nobleman  and  encouraged  the  commoner  to  re- 
claim land,  it  became  impossible  to  enforce  the  laws 
against  the  men  of  great  estate.  The  simple  reason 
was  this,  that  these  large  land-owners,  or  their 
immediate  relatives  or  agents,  were  in  high  office  in 
Kioto,  and  as  the  great  men,  so  called,  became  more 
numerous  in  the  district,  the  hands  of  the  local 


192  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

governor  were  paralyzed.  Unless  a  peasant  was  quick 
to  fulfil  the  letter  of  the  law,  the  land  agents  would 
seize  his  claim,  taking  even  the  waste  land  which  he 
might  already  have  begun  to  improve. 

What  all  this  meant  in  detailed  misery  to  the 
common  people  may  best  be  understood  by  us 
through  familiarity  with  the  story  of  Ireland.  In  the 
condition  of  contemporary  Korea,  we  may  find  an 
even  closer  analogue.  A  few  hundred  noblemen  in 
Seoul  virtually  own  the  whole  country.  So  in 
A.D.  986  the  clanhead  of  the  Fujiwara  controlled 
over  two  hundred  houses  of  independent  famihes. 

These  were  represented  by  a  province  officer  and 
were  strong  enough  to  defy  the  local  governors. 
From  the  first  estabUshment  of  Buddhism,  also,  the 
temples  had  been  endowed  with  land,  so  that  many 
of  them,  even  before  the  reform  of  645,  had  great 
estates.  In  747  one  of  them  held  five  thousand 
acres  of  land,  which  formed  but  a  single  item  of  its 
immense  wealth.  Other  temples  were  measurably 
gifted  like  this  one. 

Pretty  soon  these  temple  corporations,  or  sects, 
employed  private  detectives,  or  armed  guards,  whom 
they  could  summon  from  the  provinces  for  the  pro- 
tection of  their  property.  This  occasional  employ- 
ment of  clerical  militia,  or  lay  mercenaries,  grew  into 
a  regular  system.  When  feud  and  bloodshed  broke 
out  in  the  capital,  each  great  temple  summoned 
trusty  warriors  to  mount  guard  over  its  property. 
In  the  later  centuries,  from  the  twelfth  to  the  fifteenth, 


IMPERIALISM,  EXPANSION,  AND  FEUDALISM    193 

there  were  thousands  of  men  in  armor  at  the  beck 
and  call  of  the  abbots,  who  were  themselves  skilled 
generals.  More  than  once  the  priests  overawed  the 
Throne.  Until,  in  15()5,  Nobunaga  drew  on  the 
mailed  gauntlet,  and  unsheathed  his  sword  to  humble 
Ja])anese  clericalism  forever,  the  bonzes  held  with 
th(;  barons  the  balance  of  power. 

It  is  needless  to  point  out  that  while  private  estates 
were  increasing  enormously,  the  official  figures  on 
which  taxation  was  based  steadily  dwindled.  The 
lands  termed  ''not  arable"  grew  in  ahirming  ratio; 
nsus  showing  fewer  and  fewer  men  and  many 
women  in  the  taxable  families.  Thus  the  burden 
increased  upon  the  peasants,  making  them  gladly 
ready  for  some  change  that  promised  to  improve 
their  lot.  One  district,  which  in  a.d.  6G0  could 
furnish  20,000  soldiers,  returned  as  its  taxable  popu- 
lation, in  765,  only  1900  names,  and  in  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, every  taxable  person  had  disappeared.  Other 
sti'iking  instances  are  cited  by  Asakawa.  The  same 
m(3morialist,  who  gives  in  detail  this  extreme  case, 
argued  that  out  of  300,000  taxable  people  living 
outside  the  Home  Provinces,  not  more  than  100,000 
w(ire  being  actually  taxed. 
jfeie  great  men  who  controlled  the  central  govem- 
ents  were  really  the  workers  of  disorder  and  anarchy 
in  the  district  provinces  by  evicting  the  people  and 
absorbing  their  lands.  What  hope  was  there  of 
good  government  or  what  chance  of  arresting  the 
trous  evil  ?     In  such  a  state  of  affairs  laws  passed 


^^^sastrous  evi 


194  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

to  encourage  the  cultivation  of  land  to  secure  revenue 
from  taxes  were  vain,  and  the  power  of  the  local 
governors  steadily  dwindled.  Great  men  at  the  top 
of  the  Kioto  bureaucracy  continually  pressed  the 
local  officers  to  enforce  the  law  against  the  evils,  of 
which  they  themselves  were  the  fons  et  origo.  The 
house  of  Nippon  was  divided  against  itself. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

)NE  people:    two  capitals 

PROPER  treatment  of  the  origin  and  development, 
s,  and  phenomena  of  the  feudal  system  in  Japan, 
which  grew  up  utterly  uninfluenced  by  Europe,  and 
which  gave  the  nation  its  political  training  for  signal 
successes  in  the  twentieth  century,  would  require 
volumes;  but  the  general  review  here  proposed  may 
without  interest  to  the  student  of  history. 
)elieve  myself  to  be  the  only  surviving  foreigner 
dwelt  within  a  feudal  fief,  in  a  feudal  city,  and 
a  daimio's  castle,  beholding  and  studying  the 
workings  of  the  Japanese  feudal  system  while  it  was 
yet  a  living  institution. 

During  the  centuries  when  the  luxury-loving  nobles 
in  the  capital  dallied  with  art  and  poetry,  men  of 
shi'ewd  mind  and  keen  spirit,  by  living  in  the  provinces 
and  on  the  frontier,  steadily  secured  control  both  of 
th(3  military  and  civil  forces  and  finally  of  the  land 
itself.  This  process  went  on  until  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, when  the  time  was  ripe  for  these  men  to  stand 
forth,  and  seize  ''the  whole  earth,"  which,  in  theory, 
belonged  to  the  Emperor.  Thus  would  they  reduce 
th(3  Fujiwara  and  civil  officers  at  the  Court  to  poverty, 

195 


volume 

Unfile 

workir 


196  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

allowing  them  only  their  pride  with  the  mere  sem- 
blance of  rule,  while  they  themselves,  holding  the 
purse  and  the  sword,  should  dictate  under  decent 
forms,  of  course,  what  should  be  done.  Yet  this 
was  not  the  work  of  a  day,  and  it  is  well  to  inquire 
who  these  men  of  brains  and  brawn,  destined  to  bring 
in  the  new  era,  were. 

It  was  from  those  whose  business  it  was  to  samurau, 
or  serve  the  emperor  —  whence  the  name  samurai  — 
in  the  Six  Guards  garrison  at  Kioto,  or  who,  having 
been  pages  in  the  palaces,  had  learned  court  craft, 
that  the  men  of  the  epic  age  of  Kamakura  were 
recruited.  For  the  most  part,  these  men  for  the 
new  time,  scorning  the  luxury  in  the  City  Royal  and 
seeing  their  opportunity,  returned  to  their  native 
districts  and  remaining  there  obtained  influence  and 
power.  Gradually,  in  spite  of  either  military  or 
civil  superiors,  they  became  masters  of  the  situation. 
With  armor,  horses,  and  plenty  of  followers,  they 
could  snap  their  fingers  at  regularly  constituted 
authority.  Furthermore,  they  were  a  necessity 
to  commanders  charged  with  the  Emperor's  com- 
mission to  ''chastise  the  rebels."  An  arduous  cam- 
paign in  some  distant  province  being  ordered,  what 
was  the  procedure  ? 

The  general  in  command,  being  in  want  of  soldiers, 
could  not  wait  for  an  army  on  paper  to  become  mov- 
ing battalions.  He  summoned  at  once  these  so-called 
warriors,  ever  instantly  ready,  and  found  himself 
immediately    furnished.     Thus    in    the    course    of 


^the  bi 


ONE  PEOPLE  :    TWO  CAPITALS  197 

centuries,  the  relation  of  great  name  (daimio)  and 
retainer,  or  lord  and  vassal,  became  permanent.  The 
warrior  was  a  distinct  product  of  his  era,  developing 
a  dress,  coiffure,  and  customs  entirely  his  own.  To 
keep  the  hair  out  of  his  eyes  he  shaved  his  temples 
and  midscalp,  and  tied  a«4-{M>matufi>ed- his  queue 
it  lay  in  a  gun-hammer  and  ramrod  style  on 
ddle,  his  topknot  fitting  into  a  slit  made  inside 
tEe"  buckskin  Hning  of  his  helmet,  thus  holding  it 
snug.  Of  his  swords,  one  for  battle  and  one  for  him- 
self in  defeat,  poets  sang,  and  he  saluted  his  shining 
blade  as  his  soul.  For  him  alone  was  the  privilege 
ra-kiri,  if  he  were  criminal  or  beaten.  The 
oner  must  suffer  decapitation  on  the  common 
execution  ground.  The  samurai  code  of  life,  noble 
indeed  on  its  best-known  side,  was  ferocious  and 
brutal  on  its  reverse.  Bushido,  now  seen  only  in 
perspective  and  rhetoric,  is  iridian  in  its  sunset  glow. 
Long  before  the  old  system  was  visil)ly  tottering, 
the  new  one  was  born.  Before  the  tenth  century  all 
military  power  had  slipped  away  from  the  Court, 
he  civil  officers  in  Kioto  might  look  with  contempt 
ese  ''low  soldiers,"  for  in  mediirval  Japan  there 
e  same  abyss  that  has  so  long  yawned  in  China 
etween  the  civilian  and  the  military  mandarin. 
Nevertheless  in  time  a  complete  transformation  took 
place,  the  soldier  becoming  both  gentleman  and 
scholar.  The  sword  and  pen,  arms  and  letters,  be- 
came incarnated  in  that  typical  product  of  Japan, 
unknown   elsewhere   in   Asia,   the   samurai.     Japan 


III; 

^Detwee 


198  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

beat  Russia  in  1906  by  virtually  giving  to  her  peasants 
a  military  title  of  nobility,  which  changed  commoners 
into  samurai,  largely  with  the  aid  of  a  national  pubhc 
school  system. 

During  this  evolution  of  centuries,  even  to  the 
present  moment,  no  aspirant  for  honors  or  power,  civil 
or  military,  ever  attempted  to  seize  the  Throne. 
What  paralyzed  every  bold  traitor's  hand  and  nerved 
the  arm  of  each  loyal  subject  to  kill  the  usurper,  was 
the  universal  belief  in  the  Mikado's  descent  in  an 
unbroken  line  from  the  gods  who  created  and  ruled 
over  Japan.  The  shogun  or  general  must  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  Emperor,  who  was  the  fountain  of  all 
rank  and  order.  To  claim  legality,  the  military  leader 
must  always  hold  the  Emperor's  commission  to  chas- 
tise those  against  whom  he  fought,  who  were  styled 
choteki,  or  rebels. 

Nevertheless,  although  the  most  victorious  shogun 
might  possess  the  whole  military  power  of  the  coun- 
try, he  was  not,  when  at  the  Court,  the  first  of  His 
Majesty's  subjects.  He  could  never,  by  reason  of 
his  office  alone,  claim  the  right  of  a  face-to-face  inter- 
view with  the  Emperor;  nor  was  this  rule  ever  vio- 
lated in  form,  v/hatever  might  be  the  facts. 

The  logical  result  of  such  a  system  of  political 
orthodoxy,  which  kept  the  Throne  inviolate,  is  seen 
throughout  all  Japanese  history,  even  to  the  nine- 
teenth century.  To  clothe  his  acts  with  legality, 
the  general  must  make  out  his  own  as  the  loyal  side. 
In  order  to  brand  his  enemies  as  choteki,  or  rebels 


ONE  PEOPLE  :    TWO  CAPITALS  199 


i^: 


st  the  Court,  he  must  possess  or  control  the 
Imperial  person.  This  gave  him  ten  points  of  the 
law,  or,  as  the  Chinese  say,  eleven-tenths  of  the 
whole  thing.  During  several  centuries,  the  Mikados 
of^  Japan  were  virtually  prisoners  in  the  cage,  the 
of  which  was  shut  or  opened  by  bold  adventurers 
usmg  a  puppet's  or  a  woman's  hand. 

the  eleventh  century,  the  frontier  wars  over, 

ilitary  clan  leaders  came  to  live  in  Kioto  and 
were  soon  ecjual  in  power  to  the  palace  clique,  but 
in  n59,  in  a  fight  before  the  palace  between  the  par- 
tisans of  rival  claimants  to  the  Throne,  and  in  the 
sequel  (detailed  in  ''The  Mikado's  Empire")  the  Taira 
under  Kiyomori  were  victorious  and  the  Minamoto 
were  slain  or  banished.  The  soldier  invaded  the 
palace.  Until  his  death  in  1181,  Kiyomori  (1118- 
ILSl)  ruled  the  Throne  and  Empire,  married  his 
daiighters   to   the   Mikados   whom   he   virtually   ap- 

d,  moved  the  capital  to  Fukuwara,  and  in- 
(Tulged  in  shameless  nepotism.     The  Taira  men  held 

■  lucrative  offices  at  Court,  and  tlicir  rich  domains 
in  thirty  provinces, 
^^omori,  with  dying  breath,  asked  that  the  head 
oritomo,  a  young  Minamoto  partisan  (1147- 
,  banished  to  the  East  and  living  at  Kama- 
kum,  be  laid  on  his  tomb.  To  condense  into  a  sen- 
tence the  substance  of  a  vast  mass  of  history,  legend, 
art,  literature,  and  the  drama,  this  same  Yoritomo, 
on  hearing  of  Kiyomori's  death,  at  once  summoned 
the  retainers  of  his  ancestors  to  destroy  the  Kioto 


daught 
(Tmged 


200  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

bureaucracy.  He  sent  his  kinsman  Yoshinaka,  soon 
to  be  called  the  Morning-sun  General,  on  account  of 
his  rapid  victories,  and  he  entered  Kioto  in  triumph. 
His  own  beautiful  concubine,  Tomoye,  followed 
her  lord  in  battle,  sheathed  in  armor  and  riding  a 
swift  horse.  The  long  night  of  exile  and  defeat 
broke,  and  the  day  of  the  Minamoto  dawned  with 
unexpected  splendor.  Sudden  authority,  however, 
seemed  to  turn  Yoshinaka's  head,  and  Yoritomo 
deposed  him. 

Yoshitsune,  Yoritomo's  brother,  led  the  host 
which,  in  1184,  destroyed  the  fortified  palace  at 
Fukuwara,  and  pursued  the  foe  southward.  In  the 
fourth  month  of  1185,  in  a  great  naval  battle  with 
500  war- junks  under  the  red  and  700  under  the  white 
flag,  the  Taira  were  annihilated.  Kiyomori's  widow, 
taking  the  boy-Emperor  Antoku,  leaped  into  the 
sea.  To-day  an  obelisk  reared  on  a  low  rock,  wave- 
lashed  and  cormorant-haunted,  tells  of  death  far 
from  the  Throne,  and  the  victory  of  the  white  flag 
in  an  incarnadined  sea.  The  peasants  and  fishermen 
still  see  ghostly  armies  rising  out  of  the  deep,  while 
the  crabs,  with  peculiar  black  dorsal  markings,  are 
looked  upon  as  the  wraiths  of  the  Taira  host.  The 
human  survivors  are  the  'Hen  lost  tribes"  of  the 
Japanese  Israel,  having  been  ''found"  in  various 
secluded  parts  of  Japan,  as  referred  to  in  Adams's 
"History  of  Japan"  (pp.  36,  37). 

Now  begins  the  dual  system  of  government  and  the 
formulation   of  the   feudal   system.     At   Kamakura 


OXE  PEOPLE  :    TWO  CAPITALS  201 

Yoritomo  gathered  the  official  records,  tax-rolls,  and 
land-titles.  He  set  up  a  Council  of  State  and  tribu- 
nals, which  soon  brought  order  in  the  empire  and  dis- 
pensed justice  to  all  the  people.  His  first  problem 
was  the  limitation  of  armaments.  He  gave  notice 
that  "in  all  matters  concerning  the  military  class, 
the  wishes  of  the  cloistered  Emperor  should  be 
ob(?yed,"  and  petitioned  the  reigning  Mikado  to 
allow  him  to  apportion  rewards  and  to  "prohibit  the 
priests  from  wearing  arms."  He  prayed  the  Em- 
peror that  five  men  of  his  own  family  name  might  be 
made  military  governors  in  as  many  provinces. 
This  petition  was  granted.  The  Yezo  Daikwan  had 
■ge  of  all  the  Ainu  and  affairs  in  the  far  north, 
functionary  representing  the  shogun  dwelt  at 
sugaru  and  guarded  against  raids  from  Yezo  island, 
which  in  later  time  was  occupied  at  Matsumae  by  a 
garrison. 

e  result  of  Yoritomo's  programme  was  twofold, 
n  had  a  strong  administration,  and  great  power 
was  thrown  into  the  hands  of  Yoritomo,  who  was  thus 
enabled  to  cloak  his  own  ambitions  under  the  forms 
of  law.  The  East  land  was  kept  in  order  under  his 
own  hand.  He  and  his  astute  father-in-law  Hojo 
fui-ther  elaborated  a  plan  for  tranquillizing  the  whole 
enipire.  Under  the  idea  that  this  was  a  measure 
provisionally  taken  with  a  view  to  the  quick  restora- 
tion of  order  after  war,  due  confirmation  was  made  at 
Kioto.  But  with  Yoritomo  the  plan  was  meant  to 
be  a  fixture.     His  idea  was  to  establish  in  each 


■i 


202  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

province,  along  with  the  civil  governor,  a  ''  Protector, '' 
and  in  each  district  a  jito,  or  military  assistant.  The 
Protector  was  to  receive  as  his  salary  one-fiftieth  of 
the  assessed  yield  of  the  land,  to  reside  at  the  pro- 
visional capital,  and  have  joint  authority  in  all 
matters  of  administration.  In  the  smaller  districts 
not  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  civilian  government, 
the  Jito,  also  a  military  man,  had  entire  charge,  and 
land  was  set  apart  for  the  support  of  his  soldiers. 
Yoritomo  also  asked  for  authority  to  levy  a  new  tax, 
not  only  in  the  Inner  Country,  but  in  the  four  western 
and  southern  circuits,  for  the  maintenance  of  troops. 
He  meekly  requested  that  he  should  be  allowed  to 
reward  his  relatives  the  Minamoto,  who  had  done 
meritorious  service,  by  appointing  them  to  be  the 
military  governors,  and  that  they  should  be  under 
his  own  immediate  orders.  This  also  was  granted 
by  Imperial  decree. 

This  was  the  pivotal  event  in  the  rise  of  the  feudal 
system  in  Japan,  for  it  ended  the  Theocratic  or  Im- 
perial period  of  Japanese  history.  To  foreshorten 
a  long  perspective,  we  have  only  to  say  that  in  course 
of  time  these  military  governors  became  real  province 
rulers,  obtaining  the  whole  authority  and  expelling 
the  civilians.  The  military  magistrates  of  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries  became  the  progenitors  of 
the  great  daimios,  such  as  those  of  Satsuma,  Choshiu, 
Echizen,  Sendai,  and  others  whose  names  appear 
so  notably  as  factors  all  through  the  following  cen- 
turies and  until  within  the  last  decade.     To-day  their 


ONE  PEOPLE  :    TWO  CAPITALS  203 

successors,  who  are  for  the  most  part  their  former 
retainers  or  servants,  are  high  in  the  nobihty  of  Japan 
of  the  Meiji  era,  whose  government  is  yet,  in  the 
main,  a  mihtary  ohgarchy. 

In  1192  Yoritomo  was,  by  Imperial  decree,  ap- 
pointed Barbarian-Subduing-Great  General,  in  which 
event  and  title  the  elements  of  previous  events  and 
titles  were  concentrated.  The  Ainu  were  not  now 
in  view,  except  those  on  the  northern  islands,  for  the 
Hondo  Ainu  for  the  most  part  had  boon  absorbed  in 
the  nation.  After  enjoying  the  military  power  and 
virtual  sovereignty  of  the  empire  during  fifteen 
years,  he  (Hod  in  1198,  at  the  age  of  fifty-three. 

oritomo's  real  intentions  were  cloaked  by  his 
rd  conformity  to  law  and  tradition.  When 
men  of  brains  and  affairs  recognized  in  him  the  man 
of  the  hour,  they  left  Kioto  and  came  to  him,  bring- 
ing the  records  of  the  departments.  As  iron  filings  to 
a  magnet,  the  weaker  ones  and  those  who  longed  for 
order  were  drawn  to  the  mighty  man  at  Kamakura. 
At  his  tomb,  the  visiting  scholar  of  to-day  finds 
food  for  thought  and  sees  that  power  once  given  is 
hard  to  take  away.  What  was  considered  a  tem- 
poi'ary  expedient  remained  permanent  during  seven 
centuries,  until,  in  our  time,  after  war  and  usurpa- 
tion, the  national  problem  has  been  solved  by  a 
union  of  the  Throne  and  people,  both  representing 
government  and  nationality.  It  is  only  within  the 
last  few  years  that  the  Japanese  have  been  a  nation, 
in  something  like  the  full  meaning  of  the  term,  and 


^ 


204  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

a  Japanese  Empire,  in  the  same  sense  that  there  is  a 
British,  a  Russian,  or  a  German  Empire,  has  existed. 

This  cloaking  of  personal  ambition  under  the  guise 
of  law  reveals  also  a  fatal  weakness  discernible  in  all 
Japanese  history.  The  philosopher  and  the  theologian 
find  the  cause  in  a  feeble  sense  of  personality,  charac- 
teristic of  those  nations  whose  mind  runs  to  pan- 
theism. Whatever  the  philosophy  may  be,  we  note 
in  their  language,  literature,  and  art,  an  effacement 
of  the  personal  nature  of  the  ''Power,  not  ourselves, 
that  works  for  righteousness,"  and  the  reduction  of 
the  idea  of  a  conscious  Being  to  that  of  a  bundle  of 
laws  and  forces.  The  forms  and  the  reality  of  things 
are  very  different,  making  much  of  their  so-called 
history  worthless,  and  compelling  us  always  to  look 
under  the  figure-head  for  the  wire-puller  and  under 
the  surface  phenomena  for  the  true  inwardness. 
Before  the  Moloch  of  institutions,  names  and  ap- 
pearances, man  as  man,  and  truth  for  truth's  sake,  are 
sacrificed. 

Yoritomo  was  Japan's  Jeroboam  in  more  senses 
than  one.  He,  too,  ''quickly  realized  that  it  was  nec- 
essary for  his  position  to  establish  a  strong  counter- 
attraction"  to  both  Nara  and  Kioto.  The  man  of 
war  must  be  an  ecclesiastic  also.  An  image  of  Great 
Buddha  must  arise  in  Kamakura  to  the  honor  of  the 
faith  and  as  a  magnet  to  draw  pilgrims.  After  par- 
ticipating in  the  dedication  of  the  restored  temple  of 
the  Nara  Dai  Butsu,  he  solemnly  resolved  to  rear 
a  similar  object  of  worship  in  his  capital.     A  fall  from 


ONE  PEOPLE  :    TWO  CAPITALS  205 

his  horse  causing  death  postponed  the  project,  but 
woman's  devotion  made  reahty  of  Yoritomo's  hope. 
Itano,  a  lady  of  the  shogunal  court,  began  subscrip- 
tions and  persevered  until,  in  the  autumn  of  1252, 
the  mighty  image,  one  of  the  largest  in  the  world, 
was  cast.  Fifty  feet  high,  it  now  remains  in  rain  and 
sunlight,  a  noble  work  of  art.  When  first  enshrined, 
and  before  the  ocean  floods  swept  away  the  roof  and 
sixty-three  lordly  columns,  it  was  set  within  a  tem- 
ple nearly  five  hundred  feet  square.  Other  grand 
temples,  monasteries,  libraries,  the  triumphs  of 
artists,  and  the  presence  of  scholars  made  this  city 
of  military  vice-royalty  the  wonder  of  Japan.  It 
was  a  time  of  increasing  religious  fervor  and  of  "the 
new-born  enthusiasm  of  individual  consciousness." 
Portrait  statues  came  into  vogue.  The  terrors  of 
justice  in  the  world  to  come  were  vividly  depicted. 
In  a  word,  there  was  reaction  from  both  mere  scho- 
lasticism and  effeminacy.  Less  esoteric,  Buddhism 
was  henceforth  to  be  the  religion  of  the  people;  for 
life,  though  still  dominated  by  the  sword,  was  vastly 
more  democratic  in  tone  than  when  Kioto  had  no 
rival.  "He  who  pleads  the  people's  cause"  might 
well  be  the  meaning  of  the  Japanese  Jeroboam's 
name,  for  government  was  now  in  the  hands  of  plain 
an(]  practical  men.  Kamakura,  which  in  its  pinnacle 
of  glory  may  have  contained  a  million  souls,  focussed 
the  new  heroic  life  of  Japan. 

Henceforth,  until  1868,  it  is  the  Camp  and  not  the 
Throne  that  is  the  real  Government  of  Japan.     The 


206  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

period  is  variously  called  that  of  the  dominion  of  the 
military  classes,  or  the  rule  of  the  Bushi,  or  sworded 
samurai  —  in  distinction  from  that  of  the  Kuge  or 
Court  nobles,  or  Bakufu,  Tent,  or  Curtain  Govern- 
ment; for  the  general  and  ''man  on  horseback," 
the  ever  armed  man,  now  rules. 

Japan's  greatest  danger  is  even  yet,  in  this  twen- 
tieth century,  from  her  military  men,  who,  under  the 
plea  of  ''necessity,"  "danger,"  or  "the  glory  of  Japan 
beyond  seas,"  may  exalt  the  sword  as  the  sacred 
emblem  of  the  nation,  when  wise  and  constructive 
statesmanship  and  a  deeper  sense  of  the  real  needs  of 
the  people  and  the  worth  of  life  are  what  will  make 
Japan  truly  great  and  unshakable  forever. 


CHAPTER  XV 

JAPAN   REJECTS   MONGOLISM 

Brief  was  the  rule  of  the  Taira,  and  almost  as 
short  was  the  dominion  of  the  Minamoto  —  both  of 
them  based  on  the  sword,  which  they  took  up  and 
by  which  their  line  perished.  When  Yoritomo  died, 
the  proverb  was  fulfilled,  "the  great  general  has 
no  son, "  or  more  literally  "  no  seed  to  the  great  man." 
His  two  boys  were  weak  charactei-s,  vicious  and  self- 
willed,  or  given  to  luxury,  verse-making,  dog-fight- 
ing, and  foot-ball,  so  that  the  real  administrator 
of  affairs  was  Yoritomo's  father-in-law. 

Yoritomo  had  married  Masago,  the  daughter  of 
Hojo  Tokimasa.  The  family  was  descended  from 
Taira  Sadamori  who  slew  the  traitor  Masakado,  and 
took  its  name  from  Hojo,  a  town  in  Idzu.  In  1219 
the  Minamoto  line  came  to  an  end  through  violence ; 
that  is,  assassination.  Yoritomo's  widow  during 
her  long  lifetime  was  a  real  power  in  government. 
Though  she  had  shorn  off  her  hair  after  taking  the 
vows  of  Buddhist  sisterhood,  she  was  called  the 
"nun  shogun,"  because  of  her  influence. 

During  seven  generations  (1200-1333),  the  power 
wielded    at    Kamakura    by   the    Hojo    regents    was 

207 


208  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

virtually  coextensive  with  the  boundaries  of  the 
empire.  These  Shikken,  or  power-holders,  took  neither 
the  title,  nor  pretended  to  hold  the  office,  of  shogun, 
there  being  no  necessity  that  they  should.  The 
age-old  vice  of  having  a  dummy  Emperor  on  the 
throne  in  Kioto,  while  crafty  and  able  men  moved 
the  wires,  had  spread  like  an  infectious  disease  to 
Kamakura.  Content  with  the  reality  of  power,  the 
Ho  jo  men,  in  theory  vassals  of  vassals,  dictated  to 
the  Throne.  They  sent  regularly  to  Kioto  for 
babies,  boys,  and  puppets  who  were  called  Shoguns, 
but  when  any  of  these  attempted  to  govern,  they 
were  deposed  and  sent  home.  One  received  his 
return  ticket  and  transportation  in  a  palanquin, 
with  his  heels  tied  together  and  head  downward. 
Such  things  were  possible  because  Japan  had  no 
external  rivals  or  enemies  to  force  unity  in  gov- 
ernment. The  Mikado  as  the  nation's  Unifier  had 
become  a  shadow. 

The  Ho  jo  soon  drifted  into  tyranny.  They  de- 
posed Mikados  and  banished  them  to  suit  their 
pleasure.  They  confiscated  the  estates  of  those  who 
opposed  them,  in  one  case  three  thousand  fiefs  at 
a  time.  They  scattered  the  members  of  the  Imperial 
family,  and  divided  the  property  acquired  by  seizure 
among  their  own  retainers,  thus  increasing  the 
resources  and  dignities  of  this  regent  family,  though 
their  chief  took  none  for  himself. 

It  is  unquestionable  that  some  of  the  Ho  jo  men 
were  among  the  ablest  of  Japan's  statesmen,  and  that 


JAPAN   REJECTS  MONGOLISM  209 

period  of  their  rule  was  the  first  one  of  really 
national  prosperity.  In  the  spirit  of  a  true  law- 
giver, Yasutoki,  the  third  of  the  line,  gave  up  the 
first  fifteen  days  of  every  month  to  judicature.  He 
hung  a  bell  in  front  of  the  Record  Office,  which, 
when  struck  by  a  suppliant,  brought  immediate  atten- 
tion to  the  petition  of  complaint.  After  some  years' 
experience  of  this  work,  and  familiar  with  the  legis- 
lative needs  of  his  time,  Yasutoki  drew  up  the  famous  ^^y^ 
code  for  samurai,  at  which  we  shall  glance  again.  It 
begins  with  religious  and  ends  with  legal  procedure. 
Yasutoki  governed  wi.sely,  and  eschewed  land  and 
titles.  Another,  Tokimune,  was  active  in  repulsing 
on  land  and  sea  the  great  Mongol  Armada  of  Kublai 
Khan. 

Japanese  history  is,  in  the  main,  a  story  of  the  rise 
and  fall  of  families  that  come  into  notice  through  the 
talents  of  great  leaders,  and  then  pass  into  obscurity 
be(;ause  of  the  weakness  of  the  later  successors. 
Art,  fiction,  and  the  drama,  even  religion,  follow  in 
reflecting  history,  thus  aiding  to  secure  the  astonish- 
ing unity  and  perfect  nationality  of  the  Japanese. 

We  shall  now  glance  at  that  train  of  events  which 
in  historic  pers}:)ective  are  seen  to  be  the  first  great 
external  forces  awakening  national  spirit  and  com- 
pelling unity  —  the  Mongol  invasions.  The  words, 
Mongol  and  Mongolian,  which  are  now  so  loosely 
and  inaccurately  used  concerning  the  Japanese,  were 
not  known  to  the  languages  of  Europe  until  the  great 
irruption  of  the  hordes  from  Mongolia,  in  the  thir- 


210  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

teenth  century,  changed  the  face  of  the  world,  among 
other  effects  giving  to  the  Slavic  race  its  rich  infusion 
of  Mongohan  blood. 

The  Mongols  broke  the  unity  of  Asia  which  Bud- 
dhism had  created.  The  great  outburst  swept  over 
China  and  India,  severing  the  Hindu  from  the  Chinese. 
Henceforth,  an  abyss  of  separation  and  estrangement, 
where  had  been  a  common  faith  and  an  interchange  of 
thought  with  mutual  benefit,  yawned  between  the 
two  seats  of  culture.  In  India  the  Mongols,  called 
Moguls,  adopted  the  Semitic  faith  of  Islam,  carrying 
it  with  all  the  ardor  of  new  converts  to  persecution 
and  fanaticism.  Buddhism,  driven  from  the  land 
of  its  birth,  took  refuge  in  Ceylon.  The  culture  of 
Tang,  crushed  out  in  China,  found  beyond  seas  a 
haven  in  Japan.     The  face  of  Asia  was  changed. 

Buddhism  had  brought  Japan  into  harmony  with 
the  great  centres  of  civilization  and  with  Aryan  ideals 
and  Chinese  order;  for  the  religion  of  Shaka  Muni 
was  born  in  an  Aryan  heart.  After  seven  hundred 
years  of  peaceful  and  beneficent  relations  with  the 
Middle  Kingdom,  the  links  of  blessing  were  broken  and 
the  ancient  friendships  forgotten  between  the  island 
nation  and  her  great  teacher.  Militant  Mongolian- 
ism  cut  off  the  archipelago  from  the  Treasure  Land 
of  the  West.  Even  the  memories  of  ancient  benefits 
lapsed.  It  was  after  the  insult  of  attempted  invasion 
by  the  Mongols,  who  ruled  China  and  made  Korea 
their  base  of  operations  against  the  Sun  Land,  that 
the  long  dark  story  of  Japanese  sea-rovers,  reprisal, 


^° 


JAPAN   REJECTS  MONGOLISM  211 

and  the  desolation  of  the  Chinese  coasts,  from 
Taitary  to  Formosa,  begins.  The  very  name  of 
Wo-jin  (Japanese)  became  a  terror  both  in  the 
nursery  and  the  temple  litanies,  to  be  revived  in 
Imperial  proclamations  from  Peking  in  1894.  In  the 
shore  lands  of  eastern  Asia  the  petitions  put  up  for 
protection  against  the  vengeful  and  ferocious  islanders 
were  like  those  in  contemporary  Europe  —  "From 
the  fury  of  the  Northmen,  Good  Lord,  deliver  us." 
It  was  an  echo  of  Dai  Nippon's  unfavorable  medijiival 
reputation,  when,  as  with  the  howl  of  a  tigress,  the 
Chinese  Empress  called  on  her  braves  ''to  root  the 
Wo-jin  out  of  their  lairs." 

ore  his  death,  in  1217,  Genghis  Khan  had  unified 
ibes  of  the  desert.  Then  the  horde,  leaving 
gra^^s  land,  divided  into  three  parts.  Horse  and  man 
being  almost  as  one  animal,  these  median- al  centaurs 
clattered  into  Afghanistan,  Russia,  and  China.  From 
1237  till  near  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  clouds 
of  horsemen  from  mysterious  Asia  occupied  Russia, 
holding  the  people  in  vassalage.  The  blood  of  the 
Mongol  was  mingled  with  that  of  the  Slav.  In  China, 
the  Mongol  or  Yuan  dynasty  lasted  from  1280,  when 
the  grandson  of  Genghis,  Kublai  Khan,  was  actually 
seated  on  the  throne,  down  to  1341.  Then  the  Vene- 
tian Polos,  Marco  and  two  uncles,  were  among  his 
servants  and  advisers.  Italian  ideas  bloomed  in 
China.  European  war-engines  helped  to  victory  on 
deck  and  in  camp. 


212  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

1268  sent  letters  to  Kamakura,  demanding  tribute 
and  homage.  Ho  jo  Tokimune  was  the  actual  ruler 
of  the  country,  but  neither  he  nor  his  counsellors 
had  any  idea  of  making  Mongolians  of  the  Japanese. 
He  rejected  the  demands  of  the  envoys  and  dismissed 
them  in  disgrace.  Three  more  embassies  crossed  the 
sea,  but  in  each  case  the  answer  was  the  same. 

The  next  orders  from  Peking  arrived  in  1274,  in 
the  form  of  a  fleet  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  vessels  of 
war.  These  were  equipped  with  Italian  cannon  and 
engines  of  war.  Significantly,  perhaps,  Japan's 
modern  field  artillery  is  on  the  models  brought  from 
the  same  country,  their  first  instructors  in  the  Meiji 
era  being  Italians. 

The  Mongols  ravaged  the  island  of  Tsushima  and 
then  attempted  to  land  on  the  coast,  but  the  natives 
made  such  a  vigorous  resistance,  in  spite  of  the  fire- 
arms of  the  foreigners,  that  the  invaders  were  kept 
at  bay  and  their  general  killed.  Nevertheless,  'Hhe 
horse-flesh  eaters"  might  have  succeeded,  had  it  not 
been  for  a  mighty  tempest  which  arose  and  destroyed 
almost  their  entire  fleet.  In  1276  Kublai  renewed 
his  offensive  propositions,  but  this  time  the  sword 
was  the  only  answer,  and  the  envoy's  head  was  cut 
off.  Again,  in  1279,  when  two  more  messengers 
arrived,  they  likewise  were  decapitated  by  Hojo's 
orders.  Tokimune  now  gave  notice  that  all  the 
western  provinces  should  prepare  for  a  mighty 
invasion. 

In  June,  1281,  the  great  Armada,  containing  in  all 


JAPAN  REJECTS  MONGOLISM  213 

100,000  Mongols  and  100,000  Koreans,  appeared  off 
the  island  at  Iki,  whose  inhabitants  were  slaughtered. 
The  Mongols,  who  were  more  at  home  on  horseback 
than  on  deck,  then  proceeded  to  the  mainland,  there 
to  meet  with  a  stubborn  resistance.  Disembarking 
at  Hizen,  a  week  of  battles  ensued,  their  artillery 
causing  great  losses  among  the  Japanese.  But  again 
the  breath  of  God,  the  "divine  wind,"  came  to  the 
aid  of  the  Japanese.  The  mighty  Armada  was 
dispersed  and  thousands  of  soldiers  were  drowned. 
Others,  in  the  shattered  ships,  found  themselves  sur- 
rounded by  small  boats  manned  by  brave  patriots. 
With  enormously  long  poles,  hooked  at  the  ends  with 
iron,  the  Japanese  dragged  off  the  Mongols  into  the 
sea.  Or  they  boarded  the  ships  to  engage  in  hand-to- 
hand  sword  fights  in  which  the  keen  blades  of  the 
islanders  proved  their  edge  and  temper.  When 
wielded  by  desperate  and  skilful  hands,  the  sword 
seemed  to  be  a  part  of  the  warrior  himself.  The  sur- 
vivors, seeking  refuge  on  islands,  were  pursued, 
captured,  and  beheaded.  It  is  said  that  but  three 
survivors  reached  China  with  news  of  the  disaster. 

It  was  this  same  "breath  of  God,"  the  "divine 
wind,"  for  which  the  Japanese  prayed  when  Perry's 
squadron  in  1853  made  apparition,  but  the  times 
had  changed  and  the  spirit  of  the  aliens  was  not  the 
same.    The  same  petitions  arose  to  Heaven  in  1905. 

i\.fter  the  victory,  according  to  the  proverb,  wise 
Tokimune  knotted  the  cords  of  his  helmet,  and  con- 
tinued to  fortify  the  ports.     Never  before  did  national 


214  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

feeling,  as  distinct  from  local  pride  or  loyalty,  rise 
so  high.  Thousands  to  whom  such  a  conception  had 
hardly  come  were  thrilled  with  new  hopes  and  fears 
and  put  up  prayer  for  the  whole  nation.  It  was  a 
time  of  deep  religious  feeling.  Throughout  succeed- 
ing centuries  the  devout  patriots  saw  in  this  repulse 
of  the  Mongols  one  of  the  interpositions  of  Divine 
Providence  in  behalf  of  Japan. 

On  the  other  hand,  Kublai  Khan  began  preparations 
for  a  new  expedition,  which,  however,  never  set  sail. 

Having  definitely  rejected  Mongolianism,  Japan 
keeps  on  the  pages  of  her  history  the  record  of  a  single 
invasion  of  her  soil,  and  that  repelled.  This  was 
the  first  "battle  of  the  Sea  of  Japan."  Significantly 
enough  in  the  same  waters,  the  semi-Mongol  Russians, 
in  the  armada  under  the  gallant  Rojesventsky,  in 
1905,  were  checked  by  Admiral  Togo. 

Thus  the  straits  of  Tsushima  witnessed  two  grand 
naval  victories  in  defence  of  Dai  Nippon. 

Tokimune  did  not  long  survive  the  national  tri- 
umph, which  was  due  in  great  part  to  his  energy, 
but  died  at  the  age  of  thirty-four.  Nevertheless  his 
posthumous  honors  are  great.  Unforgotten  as  the 
first  great  asserter  of  Japan's  sovereignty  against  a 
foreign  invader,  he  was,  in  1905,  by  an  Imperial 
decree,  exalted  to  the  second  degree  of  the  first  rank 
of  nobility  in  Japan's  peerage.  At  the  great  festival 
held  at  Kamakura,  April  4,  1905,  the  leading  Gen- 
erals, victors  at  Mukden,  and  again  in  1906,  the 
Admirals,  fresh  from  the  battle  of  the  Sea  of  Japan, 


JAPAN  REJECTS  MONGOLISM  215 

present  to  do  honor  to  one  whose  memory  had 
inspired  them  to  so  vigorous  a  defence  of  the  Father- 
land. 

This  event  —  the  rejection  by  the  Japanese  of 
what  seemed  a  proposal  to  revert  from  civilization  to 
barbarism  —  may  be  reckoned  as  the  greatest  in  the 
development  of  national  consciousness,  until  the 
advent  of  Perry's  expedition.  .  The  value  of  the  ex- 
perience in  rejecting  Mongolism  cannot  be  over- 
estimated. Before  this  time,  no  outward  occurrence 
had  so  made  the  various  tribes  and  clans  realize  that 
they  were  a  nation.  Foreign  menace  and  pressure 
were  as  hammers  beating  parts  into  a  whole. 

Other  results,  besides  a  sense  of  danger,  unity  of 
effort,  and  closer  nationalization  resulted.  In  the 
rebound  of  national  feeling,  there  was  a  revival  of 
sensitiveness  to  the  Unseen  which  manifested  itself 
in  a  determination  to  keep  intact  the  religious  culture 
borrowed  from  China  and  India.  The  Mongols  in 
China  tried  to  crush  out  Buddhism.  In  India  they 
persecuted  Hinduism.  Okakura,  in  his  "Ideals  of 
the  East,"  points  out  that  both  of  these  great  coun- 
tries received  a  mental  shock  and  underwent  a  pro- 
found anguish  of  spirit  from  which  their  peoples  have 
never  wholly  recovered.  Scholarship  survived  only 
among  those  who  were  willing  to  submit  to  barbaric 
patronage.  Original  intellectual  vigor  declined  to 
the  vanishing  point.  Art  became  ultra-conven- 
tional or  was  bizarre  and  grotesque.     Attempts  made 


216  JAPANESE  NATION   IN  EVOLUTION 

had  failed,  because  the  national  consciousness,  weak- 
ened under  alien  tyranny,  made  renationalization 
almost  impossible.     Alas  for  India  and  China ! 

In  Japan,  on  the  contrary,  success  over  the  invader 
created  a  new  spirit  of  nationalism  determined  on 
keeping  the  old  culture.  Thus  it  came  to  pass  that 
much  of  what  was  lost  in  China  was  kept  and  is 
recoverable,  even  to  the  alien  scholar,  in  Japan  to 
this  day.  As  usual,  after  a  time  of  large  borrowing, 
enriching  the  mental  soil,  rose  a  harvest  of  original 
thought. 

The  chief  manifestation  of  the  new  national  energy 
was  evident  less  in  political  than  in  religious  develop- 
ment. Resilience  from  the  victory  meant  tremendous 
missionary  development  of  Japanese  Buddhism  and 
astonishing  phenomena  of  doctrinal  evolutions.  It 
is  in  the  post-Mongol  age  that  we  note  the  founding 
of  new  native  sects,  based  not  on  the  old  Hindu  or 
mediaeval  Chinese  thought,  but  on  activities  of  the 
native  mind  and  built  up  through  the  propagating 
zeal  of  the  Japanese  themselves.  Perhaps  by  this 
time  Japan  had  made  full  assimilation  of  what  India 
could  teach.  After  Honen  (1133-1212),  who  founded 
the  sect  of  the  Pure  Word  (Jodo),  we  have  Shinran 
(1173-1262)  and  Nichiren  (1222-1282),  who  brought 
religion  down  to  the  common  people.  In  this  genera- 
tion, art  and  dogma,  eloquence  and  beauty,  were 
carried  all  over  the  empire.  New  literary,  educa- 
tional, and  architectural  influences  in  the  large 
towns   and    villages,  and    even    in    country  places, 


JAPAN   REJECTS  MOxNGOLISM  217 

created  a  new  landscape.  In  ''The  Religions  of 
Japan"  we  have  treated  of  the  missionar}^  and 
doctrinal  phases  of  the  Hojo  era,  showing  also  their 
influence  on  popular  art.  The  Nichirenites  form 
to-day  what  we  may  call  the  Salvation  Army  of 
Japanese  Buddhism.  Rankly  luxuriant  is  the  growth 
of  legend  around  the  figure  of  Nichiren,  to  which  in 
the  nineteenth  century  the  pencils  of  Hokusai  (1760- 
1<S49)  and  Kuniyoshi  (ISOO-LSGl)  have  done  justice. 

There  are  some  who,  looking  at  original  Buddhism, 
as  read  from  the  primitive  documents  of  Pali  and 
Sanskrit,  may  call  this  Japanese  Buddhism  a  chapter 
of  decay  in  the  history  of  the  faith,  while  others  recog- 
nize a  return  to  purer  Aryan  Buddhism,  and  consider 
that  the  Hojo  epoch  was  creative  and  strong  in  origi- 
nal thought.  It  may  be  that  fictitious  miracle  and  hot 
fanaticism  often  mark  the  popular  j)hases  of  the  ex- 
panding Buddhism  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
centuries,  but  it  is  certain  that  this  was  its  Golden  Age 
in  Japan.  We  have  treated  this  whole  subject  more 
fully  in  ''The  Mikado's  Empire  " ;  while  in  Dr.  Knox's 
"The  Development  of  Religion  in  Japan,"  and  in  the 
papers  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,  one  may  see 
how  the  heart  and  intellect  of  the  Japanese  responded 
to  the  new  interpretations  of  Shaka's  doctrine. 

The  Buddhism  of  Hojo  times  welded  the  Nippon 
peoples  into  a  nation.  Never  before  were  the  Ainu- 
Japanese  in  northern  Hondo  so  Buddhaized.  The 
strong  point  in  the  teaching  both  of  Shinran  and 
Nichiren  was  to  show  how  lowly  humanity  and  even 


218  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Eta  and  Ainu,  who  in  practical  religion  were  beyond 
the  ken  of  the  earlier  sects  and  dogmas,  could  reach 
Buddhahood.  Shinran  declared  that  it  was  possible 
for  females  to  attain  Nirvana  without  being  reborn 
as  men.  In  Christian  language  he  taught  that 
women  had  souls.  Both  teachers  laid  stress  on  the 
power  and  willingness  of  the  boundlessly  compassion- 
ate Amida  to  save  and  uplift  even  those  who  had  been 
considered  beyond  the  pale.  Down  to  the  very  low- 
est strata  of  society  reached  their  message  of  cheer. 
The  hearts  of  men  on  the  distant  frontier,  who  for  the 
first  time  heard  the  clear  invitation,  thrilled  with  hope. 
The  struggles  of  ^'Gen  and  Hei,"  or  Minamoto  and 
Taira,  passed  into  memory  to  emerge  only  a  solace 
in  art  and  in  music  as  the  praise  of  manly  life.  It 
was  at  this  time,  especially,  that  the  Satsuma  biwa 
entered  upon  a  new  era  of  use  and  phase  of  power. 
This  instrument  is  smaller  and  more  delicate  than 
the  Chinese  lute,  from  which  it  is  derived,  though 
constructed  on  the  same  principle.  It  is  especially 
used  to  accompany  heroic  recitations  and  ancient 
songs  of  love  and  war,  the  chief  being  the  famous 
Heike  Monogatari.  This  classic  prose-poem  tells  of 
the  long  feud  and  great  battles  between  the  Reds 
and  the  Whites,  ending  in  the  annihilation  near 
Shimonoseki  of  the  Butterfly  clan  and  the  drowning 
of  the  infant  Emperor  Antoku.  In  playing  it,  a  very 
peculiar  birdlike  trill  is  imparted  to  the  notes  by 
the  vibration  of  the  strings  on  the  broad  surface  of 
the  fret.     ''Short  phrases  of  the  poem,  corresponding 


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I 


JAPAN  REJECTS  MONGOLISM  219 

almost  exactly  with  operatic  recitative,  are  chanted, 
and  after  each  of  them  comes  descriptive  music 
increasing  in  vigor  as  the  battle  rages,  and  sinking 
into  melancholy  cadences  with  the  retreat  of  the 
vanquished.  .  .  .  The  dexterity  with  which  these 
descriptive  passages  are  executed  astonishes,  and  their 
simple  appropriativcness  gives  the  whole  composition 
a  charm  which  not  all  ancient  music,  even  in  the 
West,  can  be  said  to  possess.  Apart  from  these 
(Uiscriptive  passages,  the  music  is  rugged  and  devoid 
of  melody.  The  repertoire  consists  of  over  one 
hundred  pieces,  of  which  thirty  are  considered 
classical."     Of  this  Mr.  Piggott  has  ably  written. 

In  this  age,  though  the  epic  poem  proper  was  (and 
is  yet)  unknown  in  Japan,  the  whole  tone  of  life 
showed  a  manly  reaction  against  the  effeminacy  of 
the  Fujiwara  era.  A  method  of  suicide,  primarily 
int(mded  as  self-martyrdom  in  the  literal  sense, 
came  into  vogue,  among  the  sanmrai,  in  the  twelfth 
century.  In  all  ancient  conceptions,  the  bowels 
wei'e  the  seat  of  the  soul.  Hara-kiri,  or  more  ele- 
gantly in  Chinese  pronunciation  seppuku,  meant  the 
opcining  of  one's  inner  nature  to  view  by  a  volun- 
tary and  self-infiicted  thrust  of  one's  own  dirk. 
It  meant  proof  of  sincerity,  and  it  grew  to  be  a  sacra- 
ment and  often  a  vicarious  sacrifice.  Soon  the  idea 
took  form  that  the  samurai  should  not  only  be  ever 
ready  to  give  proof  with  his  life,  but  carry  always  on 
his  person  the  attest  in  steel.  Thus  in  the  four- 
teenth century  began  the  custom  of  wearing  two 


220  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

swords  —  the  longer  one  for  enemies  in  battle,  the 
second  for  self  when  in  recreancy  or  disaster,  or  in 
proof  of  sincerity,  one's  inner  nature  must  be  revealed. 
Thus  a  man  bore  witness  to  the  truth. 

In  course  of  time  such  a  method  of  "shuffling  off 
this  mortal  coil"  became  a  class  privilege,  gladly 
availed  of  in  case  of  judicial  condemnation  by  the 
samurai,  while  the  common  criminal  stretched  his 
neck  under  the  executioner's  sword  on  the  public 
execution  ground.  When  Bushido  lost  its  first  glow 
and  was  vilely  abused  by  assassins  and  Ronin  samurai, 
who  cut  down  from  behind  the  unwary  foreigners, 
who,  under  the  treaties,  were  the  guests  of  the  nation, 
their  game  was  quickly  spoiled.  By  having  them 
decapitated  publicly  in  the  place  where  the  vulgar 
criminals  suffered  the  penalty  of  their  crimes,  it  was 
no  longer  apotheosis  to  be  a  murderer. 

The  "institution"  of  seppuku  has  caused  a  river 
of  blood  to  flow  through  Japanese  history,  but  its 
ethical  weakness  has  not  escaped  the  criticism  of 
native  writers.  One  of  the  first  to  protest  against 
the  moral  poltroonery  of  suicide  was  the  late  Fuku- 
zawa  (1835-1901),  who  so  nobly  by  pen  and  life  was 
active  in  shaping  and  disseminating  the  new  ideals 
of  Japan's  civilization.  In  the  modern  codes  of 
law,  seppuku  is  not  recognized,  and  instead,  even,  of 
public  decapitation  or  hanging,  the  wilful  murderer 
or  cowardly  assassin  is  condemned  to  hard  labor  for 
life,  thus  robbing  him  of  posthumous  fame.  In  a 
word,  the  poetry  is  taken  out  of  assassination. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

"AS   A    DARK    AND    IJLOODY   GROUND 

By  the  thirteenth  century  the  whole  of  Japan  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  niihtary  class.  The  more  efficient 
the  Kamakura  administration,  the  worse  for  the 
nominal  government  at  Kioto,  where  were  the  titles, 
honors,  and  dignities,  together  with  fine  clothes  and 
luxury,  poetry  and  art,  priests  and  pretty  women. 
On  the  whole,  the  country  was  well  governed,  and  it 
was  a  time  of  great  prosperity.  It  led  all  previous 
eras  in  the  welding  of  the  nation  into  unity.  It  is 
more  than  probable  that  the  turbulent  feudatories 
were  better  kept  in  hand  for  the  benefit  of  peace  and 
of  the  people  at  large  than  in  contemporary  countries 
of  Europe.  Native  scholars  declare  that  in  econom- 
ics, handicraft,  the  fine  arts,  and  popular  culture,  the 
Ho  jo  era  was  one  of  development.  The  propagation 
of  Buddhism  vastly  improved  the  status  of  the  serfs 
on  the  soil  and  the  common  people  in  the  towns. 

Ji'rom  1221  to  1318  there  were  eleven  emperors, 
of  whom  five  were  under  eight  years  of  age,  two  were 
eleven,  and  none  was  over  twenty-four.  Of  the  pup- 
pet shoguns  at  Kamakura,  from  1220  to  1333,  two 
wxre  of  Fujiwara  stock,  and  four  were  emperors'  sons. 

221 


222  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

In  1319  the  Emperor  Go-Daigo  came  to  the  throne. 
A  man  of  abiUty,  he  smarted  at  the  indignities  put 
on  him  by  the  Ho  jo  men,  who  were  in  theory  servant 
of  servants.  Determined  to  assert  the  power  of  the 
Throne,  he  summoned  his  faithful  followers  Kusunoki, 
Ashikaga,  and  Nitta  to  fight  for  him.  In  1333  Nitta 
Yoshida  (1301-1338),  a  captain  of  Minamoto  descent, 
marched  with  20,000  men  on  Kamakura.  On  the 
cliff  he  stood  and  cast  his  sword  into  the  waves,  with 
a  prayer  to  the  gods  to  make  the  waters  recede  and 
afford  him  passage  over  the  dry  strand.  This  came 
to  pass.  He  attacked  and  burned  the  city.  Thou- 
sands of  Ho  jo  partisans  committed  hara-kiri,  and  the 
Ho  jo  leaders  were  driven  into  obscurity.  As  with 
the  Taira  and  the  crabs,  so  the  '^Hojo  bugs,"  which 
farmers  annually  exterminate  by  fire,  keep  alive  the 
name  and  memory  of  sinners  against  the  Imperial 
will,  the  Ho  jo  men,  who  stained  their  characters  with 
needless  tyranny.  In  the  sixteenth  century  we 
shall  meet  with  the  second  Ho  jo  clan  at  Odawara. 

The  two  years  following  the  fall  of  Kamakura  saw 
the  ostensible  rule  of  the  Emperor  restored.  In 
"The  Mikado's  Empire,"  over  thirty  years  ago,  we 
wrote  of  this  period  from  1334  to  1336  as  the  "Tem- 
porary Mikadoate."  Yet  no  such  thing  as  a  restora- 
tion of  the  Chinese  system  of  boards  and  ministries, 
introduced  in  a.d.  645,  was  possible,  any  more  than 
a  return  to  the  theocracy,  or  primitive  Mikadoism. 
What  had  been  provinces,  properly  administered  by 
civil  governors  from  the  capital,  were  no  longer  real 


►AN   AS  A  DARK  AND  BLOODY  GROUND    223 

units  of  organization,  but  rather  collections  of  fiefs 
or  conceptions  in  geography.  Withal,  the  country 
had  been  too  peaceful  and  prosperous  during  seven 
scor(3  years  to  set  aside  a  system  so  practically  valu- 
able. 

Yet  the  immediate  and  pressing  question  was  the 
reward  of  the  Mikado's  partisans.  One  received 
two,  another  two,  and  the  third  three  provinces. 
This  would  have  made  them  almost  viceroys,  had 
these  been  the  real  land  provisions  of  old.  In  fact, 
the  allotted  territories  were  but  little  more  than  great 
stretches  of  feudal  mosaic,  upon  which  military  follow- 
ers were  to  be  settled  as  landholders.  As  might  be 
supposed,  the  award  of  spoils  made  by  a  Mikado  who 
lived  behind  screens,  seeing  only  dancing  girls  and 
Court  favorites,  proved  unsatisfactory  to  the  warriors. 
Not  one  of  them  could  gain  access  to  his  presence, 
for  only  Fujiwara  nobles  of  the  Court  had  the  right 
of  l(toking  upon  the  Dragon  Countenance.  In  anger, 
the  soldiers  saitl,  "Better  be  vassals  with  a  shogun, 
than  puppets  of  those  who  amuse  the  Emperor." 

Ashikaga  Takauji,  making  himself  the  leader  of 
discontent,  acted  quickly  with  torch  and  sword. 
Accusing  the  Imperial  Prince  Moriata,  then  at  Kama- 
kura,  of  ambitions  for  the  Throne,  he  had  him  assassi- 
natf  d.  He  then  put  himself  in  the  dead  man's  place. 
When  forces  were  sent  against  him  from  Kioto,  Ashi- 
kaga defeated  them,  marched  on  the  capital,  occupied 
it,  and  drove  out  the  Emperor,  who  fled  intoYamato 
fastnesses.     Unable  to  capture  His  Majesty,  Ashi- 


224  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

kaga  set  a  dummy  Mikado  on  the  throne  and  from 
him  received  investiture  as  the  Great  Shogun. 

Now  begins  the  most  troubled  period  in  Japanese 
history.  In  novels  and  the  drama  and  during  the 
long  reign  of  the  censors  in  Yedo,  this  period  is  the 
Potter's  Field  of  chronology.  There  began  what  we 
called  long  ago  the  "War  of  the  Chrysanthemums." 
Every  thrust  of  wit,  sarcasm,  malevolence  at  con- 
temporary rulers  or  institutions,  even  hoary  abomi- 
nations and  the  immoralities  of  yesterday,  were 
dated  ''in  the  wicked  times  of  the  Ashikaga." 

For  fifty-six  years  (from  1336  to  1392)  and  near 
the  time  of  the  great  schism  in  Europe  and  the 
''Babylonian  Captivity"  of  the  popes  at  Avignon 
(1309  to  1376),  there  were  two  rival  emperors  in  the 
northern  and  southern  lines;  the  one  in  Kioto,  the 
other  in  Yamato.  Horrible  intestine  broils  and 
destructive  civil  wars  marked  this  period.  Japan  lay 
in  a  welter  of  anarchy  until  the  advent  of  the  third 
shogun,  Ashikaga  Yoshimitsu,  ablest  of  all  the  four- 
teen shoguns  of  this  line.  First  giving  order  to 
Kiushiu  and  Western  Japan,  he  composed  the  differ- 
ences between  the  rival  dynasties.  He  persuaded 
the  Southern  Emperor  to  come  to  Kioto  and  sur- 
render both  throne  and  regalia  (mirror,  ball,  and 
sword)  under  an  arrangement,  not  unknown  to 
previous  history,  that  the  branches  of  the  Imperial 
line  should  alternately  occupy  the  throne. 

It  was  this  Ashikaga  Yoshimitsu  (1368-1393)  who 
made  a  new  code  of  feudalism,  and  this  gave  the 


•AN  AS  A  DARK  AND  BLOODY  GROUND    225 

a  tremendous  development.  He  helped  to 
fix  the  codes  in  perpetuity,  seemingly  making  it 
impossible  for  any  return  to  the  theocratic  system. 
At  the  literature  of  Japanese  feudalism  let  us  now 
glance. 

In  1905  a  volume  of  less  than  a  thousand  pages 
entitled  "Nihon-Kodai  Hoten,"  or  the  Ancient 
Statute  Laws  of  Japan,  was  published  in  Tokio.  Two- 
fifths  of  its  bulk  holds  all  the  legislation  of  the  pre- 
shogunal  times,  or  the  Imperial  period,  from  054  to 
A.I).  1192,  while  the  laws  of  the  feudal  era  fill  three- 
fifths.  The  initial  book  of  Japanese  feudalism,  a 
code  of  fifty-one  articles  promulgated  at  Kamakura, 
A.D.  1222,  is  the  taproot  of  the  whole  subsecjuent 
growth  of  Japanese  law.  Around  this  nucleus  many 
supi^lementary  enactments  grew  in  the  next  century. 
When  the  Ashikaga  inaugurated  their  dominion,  the 
founder,  in  1335,  followed  illustrious  example  in 
issuing  a  short  code,  which  adopted  the  main  results 
of  the  Hojo  regime.  This  in  time  was  developed  in 
lat(^r  centuries  by  various  enactments  into  a  body  of 
law  greatly  exceeding  in  bulk  the  Ashikaga  original. 
One  of  its  noticeable  features  is  that  whereas  the 
fanner  under  the  theocratic  period  had  to  give  up 
seven-tenths  of  the  annual  produce  of  his  land  in 
payment  of  taxes.  Imperial  and  provincial,  the  Hojo 
reduced  the  rate  to  one-half. 

By  this  economic  provision  the  peasantry  were 
quieted  and  made  happy,  but  not  so  the  samurai  or 
swordsmen,  who  had  as  yet  no  law  but  the  will  of 


226  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

their  feudal  superiors.  Hence  the  practical  study 
of  the  whole  problem  by  Ho  jo  Yasutoki.  His  code 
deals  with  the  adjustments  of  the  new  government 
de  facto,  with  the  old  government  de  jure,  the  grants, 
confirmations,  successions,  and  distributions  of  the 
fiefs,  and  the  crimes  and  offences  which  the  newly 
evolved  warrior  caste  were  most  prone  to  commit. 
Notable  is  the  high  position  accorded  to  woman,  for 
under  the  Hojo,  females  could  hold  fiefs,  yes,  even  the 
wife  separately  from  her  husband.  This  made  a  very 
different  situation  from  that  fixed  by  the  later 
Tokugawa,  which,  under  the  spell  of  Chinese  ethical 
ideas,  distinctly  lowered  the  status  of  woman.  Noth- 
ing in  the  code  is  said  about  the  common  people,  then 
in  all  the  Kuanto  being  largely  of  Ainu  descent  or 
with  admixture  of  blood,  as  being  under  the  disposal 
of  their  feudal  lords.  In  fact,  the  masses  were  vir- 
tually serfs.  The  people  of  Japan  had  no  practical 
recognition  in  politics  until  the  Meiji  period.  When 
Ranald  MacDonald  of  Oregon  was,  in  1847,  asked  by 
the  Nagasaki  magistrates  to  explain  the  grade  of 
Commander  Glynn  of  the  U.S.  brig  Preble,  and  told 
to  begin  at  the  summit  of  authority  in  America,  he 
answered  ''the  People";  but  his  reply  was  mystery 
unfathomable. 

The  radical  measure,  in  the  development  of  feudal- 
ism, inaugurated  by  Ashikaga,  when  he  restored  the 
military  magistracies,  was  in  making  the  governor- 
ships hereditary  in  the  families  of  his  own  nominees. 
This  meant  that  the  men  whom  he  appointed  should 


»AN  AS  A  DARK  AND  BLOODY  GROUND    227 

be  the  founders  of  powerful  families,  whose  names 
have  survived  the  abolition  of  feudalism  even  to  this 
day.  After  the  great  Yoshimitsu,  third  of  his  line, 
the  Ashikaga  shoguns,  keeping  the  first  syllable  of 
their  famous  predecessor's  name,  called  themselves 
Yoshi,  Aki,  Hisa,  Katsu,  ei  cetera.  Following  the 
same  precedent,  eleven  of  the  Tokugawa  shoguns  in 
Yedo  took  the  lye  in  their  names  from  lyeyasu, 
founder  of  the  line.  The  idea,  for  luck's  sake,  is 
the  same  as  that  followed  by  steamship  companies 
that  must  have  dam,  land,  or  ia  as  final  syllables  in 
the  names  of  their  craft. 

The  Ashikaga  were  lovers  of  luxury  and  paiions 
of  art,  but  degraded  the  Emperor  to  lower  depths. 
''The  chrysanthemum  cowered  under  the  blast." 
The  palace  itself  was  sinking  into  ruins  within  sight 
of  the  golden  pavilion  of  the  shoguns.  Yet  the 
heads  of  their  own  house,  whom  they  set  up  as  regents, 
were,  for  the  most  part,  puppets,  or  mere  figure- 
heads. There  being  no  central  strength  or  visible 
exertion  of  power,  it  became  the  general  fashion  to 
seize  land  as  a  pastime.  Bold  warriors  and  clan 
chi(;fs  sprang  up  all  over  the  country  as  robber  barons 
and  land-thieves.  The  Ashikaga  themselves  governed 
only  part  of  the  country,  and  civil  war  never  ceased. 
Two  famous  families,  Hosokawa  and  the  Uyesugi, 
ruled  many  provinces,  but  in  the  period  1467-1468, 
these  two  rivals  became  enemies.  After  that,  the 
power  of  both  the  luxury-loving  Ashikaga  and  the 
shoguns  dominated  by  them  was  as  weak  as  that  of 


228  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

the  do-nothing  Emperor  in  Kioto.  The  Ashikaga 
rulers  had  been  hoist  by  their  own  petard.  By 
giving  their  nominees  hereditary  power,  they  para- 
lyzed their  own  hands  and  destroyed  the  unity  of 
their  household.  After  a  few  years,  they  could 
control  neither  relatives  nor  the  kinsmen  of  their 
retainers. 

The  strongest  organization  in  the  empire  during 
this  period  was  the  Buddhist  priesthood.  Never- 
theless, on  account  of  the  great  diversity  of  sects. 
Buddhism  could  never  wield  the  centralized  power 
that  the  Church  did  in  Europe.  From  its  first  en- 
trance into  Japan  to  the  time  of  Yoritomo,  Buddhism 
gave  the  creed  and  ritual  of  the  Court  and  upper 
classes,  but  in  the  thirteenth  century,  owing  to  the 
great  missionary  efforts  of  Honen,  Shinran,  and 
Nichiren,  the  religion  of  Shaka  became  the  common 
people's  own.  Hence  its  wider  area  and  dominance. 
Buddhism  is  protestantism,  and  therefore  lacks  a 
head.  The  dominant  sect  in  Japan,  the  Monto  or 
Shinshiu,  was  the  most  radical  of  protesters,  preach- 
ing justification  by  faith  and  the  equality  of  the  souls 
of  women  with  men,  and  allowing  marriage'  and 
meat  eating.  The  temples  being  tax  free,  their 
property  increased,  as  the  temporal  possessions  of  the 
Church  did  in  Europe,  through  a  combination  of 
craft  and  dogma,  conscience  and  economics.  In  the 
second  half  of  the  eleventh  century  it  was  with  arms 
in  their  hands  that  the  priests  laid  their  protests  and 
petitions  to  the  Government  and  even  the  Emperor." 


>AN   AS  A  DARK  AXD  BLOODY   GROUND     229 

They  were  accustomed  to  decide  their  own  differences 
[taie  gauge  of  battle  and  had  large  bodies  of  men 
ncir  pay,  while  the  wealth  of  the  monastery  kept 
on  increasing.  ''Even  the  tortures  of  hell  are  graded 
according  to  the  money  paid,"  is  a  Japanese  proverb. 
By  the  energy  of  its  apostles,  the  splendor  of  its 
art,  and  above  all  its  crafty  deglutition  of  Shinto, 
Aryan  faith,  duly  adapted  to  the  Japanese  (as 
e"Occidentalized  Christianity  of  our  times  is  sure 
to  be),  made  conquest  of  the  whole  nation. 

Under  the  Hojo,  the  priests  had  been  kept  down, 
and  for  the  most  part  disarmed,  Init  after  the  fall  of 

rdvura  the  monks  again  became  militant  and 
very  literal  sense.  During  the  turmoil  of  the 
next  two  centuries,  when  might  made  right,  the 
monastery  was  usually  a  castle  garrisoned  by  eccle- 
siastics and  their  mercenaries.  The  land  held  under 
holy  pretexts  was  divided  into  fiefs,  rent  being  paid 
by  military  service.  The  most  imposing  of  these 
feudal  fortresses  outside  of  Kchizen,  where  they  were 
numerous,  was  on  Hiyei  mountain,  near  Kioto.  Three 
thousand  monasteries  dominated  the  city,  and  the 
tly  garrison  acted  as  director  of  palace  intrigues 

he  arbiter  of  strife  in  the  capital. 

,6  Imperial  City  was  burned  again  and  again. 

e  time  the  dead  body  of  the  Mikado  lay  unburied 
until  money  could  be  begged  to  pay  funeral  expenses. 
Those  who  tell  us  blandly  that  "while  Europe  was 
rent  with  religious  strife,  Japan  was  the  Land  of 
Great  Peace,"  forget,  or  do  not  know,  how  often  the 


ii 


230  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Buddhists  of  one  sect  burnt  the  temples  of  the 
others,  and  filled  the  streets  of  the  capital  with  blood 
and  corpses.  A  large  part  of  Echizen  and  the  whole 
of  Kaga  were  under  a  double  feudahzation,  Hke  parts 
of  mediaeval  Europe,  for  they  had  for  their  lords 
their  local  baron  and  also  abbots  of  the  Shin  sect, 
which  is  still  the  most  protestant,  the  richest,  and 
the  most  powerful  in  Japan.  In  the  East  land,  the 
forty-five  monasteries  in  this  sect  mihtant  stood  on 
most  of  the  crowded  lines  of  traffic  or  places  of 
strategic  and  commercial  importance.  In  Osaka, 
from  1536,  they  had  a  stronghold  unmatched  any- 
where in  Japan.  Contempt  for  the  idea  that  Nobunaga 
could  take  this  fortress  with  sixty  thousand  men  was 
a  joking  proverb.  In  the  sixteenth  century,  with  its 
rather  too  easy  and  very  quickly  abused  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith  in  Amida,  with  aristocratic 
and  Court  stock  at  its  head,  its  priests  being  Fuji- 
wara  nobles,  and  with  its  vast  wealth  and  popularity 
for  a  base,  the  Shin  sect  was  the  most  powerful  organi- 
zation in  the  empire. 

Yet  a  new  element  at  this  time,  even  as  in  a.d.  645, 
entered  from  the  outside  to  weaken  ecclesiasticism 
and  to  modify  feudalism.  This  was  the  coming  of 
Europeans  from  Portugal  with  firearms  and  Chris- 
tianity. These  at  once  disturbed  the  balance  of 
power.  Instead  of  the  old  question,  ''who  shall 
save  the  empire  from  anarchy  and  perhaps  dissolu- 
tion?" a  new  one  was  asked,  "which  side,  castle  or 
monastery,  could  utiHze  the  new  forces?" 


»AN  AS  A  DARK  AND  BLOODY  GROUND    231 

le  Ashikaga,  who  by  bad  or  weak  government 
contrived  to  make  themselves  the  best  hated  line  of 
rulers  in  Japanese  history,  play  an  entirely  different 
role  in  the  world  outside  of  politics.  Perhaps  on  the 
principle  that  prompted  a  German  prince  to  sell 
the  services  of  a  regiment  of  his  soldiers  for  Chinese 
porcelain  vases,  so  the  Ashikaga  have  won  undying 
scorn  by  accepting  from  the  Emperor  of  China  the 
titl(!  0,  meaning  King,  but  the  shoguns,  debauched 
by  their  love  of  art,  forgot  loyalty  and  patriotism. 
They  enjoy  a  unique  fame  in  the  realm  of  art,  litera- 
ture, refinement,  and  etiquette.  Sprung  from  the 
Seiwa  branch  of  the  Minamoto,  they  took  their  name 
from  the  castle  town  in  the  southwestern  corner  of 
Shimotsuke  on  the  Tone  River,  amid  the  superb 
scenery  of  the  Eastern  Mountain  Circuit.  Their 
ancestral  home,  now  reached  by  railway,  has  a 
population  of  22,000.  In  early  days  it  was  an  Ainu 
stronghold,  but  here,  in  1150,  the  lord  of  Mutsu, 
grandson  of  Yoshiiye,  installed  himself.  He  became 
one  of  the  partisans  of  Kiyomori.  Legend  places 
a  famous  school  here  as  early  as  a.d.  801-852, 
and  again  tells,  with  more  surety, of  a  generous  ])atron, 
an  Ashikaga,  in  the  period  1 147-1 19().  Thenceforth 
it  (;njoyed  wealth,  patronage,  and  fame.  Besides  its 
revenue  and  scholars,  those  bonzes  known  to  be  most 
learned  in  Confucianism  and  Chinese  literature  were 
set  at  its  head,  so  that  this  school  during  the  fifteenth 
and  sixteenth  centuries  was  the  most  renowned  in 
Japan.     It  will  be  thus  seen  that  on  entering  upon  the 


232  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

shogunate,  we  have  in  the  Ashikaga  not  rude  soldiers, 
but  highly  cultivated  gentlemen,  whose  tendency 
when  in  power  would  naturally  be  to  over-refinement. 

As  in  previous  epochs,  Japan  at  the  end  of  the 
electric  circuit  in  the  Ashikaga  age,  was  powerfully 
influenced  by  what  had  taken  place  or  was  in  aerial 
movement  in  India  and  China.  Without  these  two 
hoary  seats  of  human  progress,  Dai  Nippon  would 
not  have  had  the  history  and  development  which 
we  know.  As  among  the  Mediterranean  nations,  art 
passed  through  the  three  phases,  represented  by 
Egypt,  Greece,  and  Renaissance  Europe,  that  is, 
the  Formal,  the  Classic,  and  the  Romantic,  so  ran 
the  course  of  the  spirit  in  India,  China,  and  Japan. 
Symbols  first,  with  impressive  mass  of  material; 
then  spirit  and  matter  in  harmony;  and  finally  the 
outburst  of  individualism.  In  Japan,  this  threefold 
development  manifested  itself  locally,  first  at  Asuka 
and  Nara ;  second  in  Kioto ;  and  third  at  Kamakura ; 
though  in  the  eastern  capital,  there  was  but  a  begin- 
ning by  Yoritomo,  to  be  continued  in  the  Mikado's 
City  by  the  Ashikaga  from  the  first  quarter  of  the 
fourteenth  to  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

The  refined  art  of  the  Ashikaga  period  is  distinctly 
different  from  the  calm  of  Asuka,  or  the  religious 
emotionalism  of  the  Fujiwara  epoch.  Manliness 
was  the  note  of  the  Kamakura  period.  Hence  the 
era  of  the  epic,  in  poetry,  music,  sculpture,  and 
painting.  The  long  discipline  of  the  spirit  through 
contemplation,    taught   in   the   sect   of   Zen    (from 


'AN   AS  A  DARK   AND  BLOODY  GROUND    233 

Dhyana,  contemplation)  was  favored  of  the  samurai. 
This,  resulting  in  self-control,  bore  fruit  in  the  fields 
of  art.  It  was  the  particular  school  of  Southern  Zen, 
imported  from  the  southern  or  individualistic  half 
of  China,  that  became  in  Japan  a  personal  discipline 
for  the  swordsmen,  but  unknown  to  the  common 
people  and  esoteric  to  the  vulgar.  Zenism  means 
secret  doctrine,  not  subject  to  any  utterance.  It 
therefore  ignores  outward  images  and  symbols, 
whether  in  the  form  of  words  or  of  idols.  It  means 
thought  transmitted  by  thought.  Zenism  is  a  sort 
of  Quakerism,  painful  to  the  lover  of  gaud  and  glitter. 
It  is  distasteful  to  all  who  lean  on  external  aids  or 
who  require  the  clamps  of  outward  authority.  The 
soul  itself  was  made  the  Buddha,  and  its  true  en- 
lightenment through  self-mastery  was  Buddhahood. 
Tiie  superior  man  became  one  with  nature,  and  the 
clear  spirit  lived  in  harmony  with  the  Absolute.  In 
the  conception  of  the  typical  Zen  warrior,  for  example, 
the  sword  became  j)art  of  his  soul ;  man  and  weapon 
were  not  will  and  instrument,  but  one,  and  death  and 
hfe  were  the  same  if  in  the  line  of  duty.  Hence  the 
emphasis  set  on  victories  over  self  as  far  more  noble 
than  prayer  or  penance.  Six  hundred  years  of 
Zenism  have  made  the  Japanese  hcTo  what  he  is,  in 
peace  and  war,  and  the  true  samurai  so  admirable  an 
ex(implar  of  humanity  in  harmony  with  itself. 

Hence  the  utter  simplicity,  with  splendor,  of  the 
Ashikaga  art.  The  Fujiwara  were  luxurious;  their 
successors  were  refined.    Not  display,  but  suggestion, 


234  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

was  the  ideal  sought.  Ashikaga  art  is  the  most  purely 
intellectual  of  all  the  phases  of  the  Japanese  world 
of  beauty.  Costly  simpHcity  was  the  canon  within 
the  home.  Precious  things  from  afar  were  arranged 
with  consummate  taste  under  thatched  roofs.  A 
Muramasa  blade  was  sheathed  in  plain  white  wood. 
One  flower,  perfect  of  its  kind,  was  set  in  a  vase. 
That  was  the  Ashikaga  idea,  antipodal,  for  example, 
to  the  vulgar  display  of  the  rich  American  or  gaud- 
loving  Briton.  Many  a  time  in  Japan  have  I  seen  in 
the  house  of  taste  and  wealth  a  carving,  vase,  bronze, 
blossom,  wall-painting,  solitary  and  alone,  its  in- 
visible sceptre  dominating  my  spirit.  Not  until 
begged  for  by  the  guest,  was  the  fireproof  storehouse 
drawn  upon  for  surprising  stores  of  silk-enwrapped 
treasures. 

Art  in  Japan  had  profited  by  centuries  of  art  criti- 
cism in  China.  Intellect  prevailed  over  passion. 
Color  gave  way  to  form  in  black  and  white.  Ink  and 
line,  in  place  of  gold  and  vermilion  in  mass,  prove 
that  the  canons  of  pure  design  were  known  in  Japan 
as  in  China.  The  wonderful  strokes  of  Sesshiu  and 
Kano  show  that  native  art,  stripped  of  its  foreign 
attributes,  can  be  great,  even  to  the  compelling  of  the 
soul's  rapture.  Under  the  fertilizing  patronage  of 
the  Ashikaga  shoguns,  we  have  a  galaxy  of  painters 
and  wonders  of  production  unmatched  in  any  era  of 
Japan. 

It  seems  amazing  that  such  artistic  richness  should 
be  possible  in  the  midst  of  constant  war.     When, 


»AN   AS  A  DARK  AND  BLOODY  GROUND    235 

however,  we  realize  that  this  was  the  era  of  the 
fortified  monastery  and  of  the  endowed  temple,  and 
that  most  of  the  artists  were  either  Zen  monks  and 
priests  or  untonsured  men  who  for  the  sake  of  artistic 
indulgence  lived  simple  lives  like  the  brethren  of  the 
vow,  the  wonder  ceases.  Indeed,  it  would  seem  as 
if  the  artist's  life  was  a  purposed  protest  against  the 
ambitions,  treacheries,  and  bloodshed  of  the  men  in 
armor  and  the  fighters  on  horseback. 

This  was  the  golden  age  also  of  the  No,  or  opera. 
RiKldhisTrT  hfl.(i  so  saturflt(>(T  the  r|ati(^nal  mind^  that 
any  neu^~"(Tevel()pment  oF  musk'  or  literal ur(>  must 
be  Buddhistic"  ill  thuugllfarurcoloring.  Duriiig~flie 
Ho  jo  period,  e|5ic^  songs,  m  which  the  glories  of 
battle  were  celebrated  with  voice  and  instrument, 
had  come  in  fashion.  The  recitative  miracle  plays 
and  Inferno  pictures  in  the  old  Kioto  style,  half 
mummer,  half  music,  were  now  united  in  the  No. 
Dance,  music,  recitative,  stage,  and  scenery  were 
combined  with  what  may  be  termed  a  masked  chorus, 
and  cast  in  the  form  of  a  historical  episode. 

The  No  performance  might  last  for  hours,  the  strain 
being  relieved  by  annising  interludes,  as  I  have  seen, 
in  daimios'  yashikis  and  in  the  old  Confucian  College 
hall,  in  Tokio.  Then  the  Mikado's  bandsmen  and  the 
hereditary  monopolists  of  the  art,  in  resplendent 
costumes,  represented  historical  and  national  episodes 
of  conflict  and  victory,  of  agony  and  joy.  At  first 
a  weariness  to  the  flesh  and  confusion  to  alien  eye  and 
ear,  the  No  in  repetition  blossomed  in  my  conscious- 


236  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

ness  with  the  beauty  and  suggestiveness  of  the  pre- 
glacial  flowers  in  our  shady  glens.  The  perfume  of 
a  thousand  associations  in  history,  romance,  mythol- 
ogy, seemed  wafted  down  the  centuries.  As  wonder- 
ful as  the  pose,  graceful  motion,  or  significant  and 
revealing  costume,  were  the  imitations  by  sound  or 
gesture.  The  ''peep  peep"  of  a  tree  frog  suggested 
night  and  bedtime.  The  dipping  up  with  her  buckets 
of  seawater  by  the  salt-making  maiden  on  the  strand, 
the  boom  of  the  temple  bell,  —  with  note  changing 
its  meaning  in  youth,  midlife,  and  old  age,  —  the  clang 
of  war,  the  craft  of  the  hunter,  the  falling  of  water, 
the  roar  of  the  storms  or  the  wind's  whisper  to  the 
forest  foliage  were  pictured  to  the  mind's  eye,  each 
sound  of  voice  or  instrument  or  swish  of  garmelits 
telling  its  tale  to  the  imagination.  Unsuspected 
effects  were  revealed  in  the  pauses.  More  powerful 
seemed  at  times  the  silences  than  the  sounds.  In  her 
art,  painting,  carving,  poetry,  dancing,  and  the  drama, 
Japan  excels  the  Occident  in  suggestiveness,  as  the 
play  of  forces  in  the  inward  soul  are  more  than  things 
seen  or  heard.     Ever  is  spirit  more  than  sense. 

A  thoroughly  logical  issue  of  the  No  performances  — 
not  of  their  background  of  dogma  and  notion,  but  of 
their  suggestion  —  were  the  silent  concerts.  A  lover 
of  brass  bands  could  hardly  approve  of  these.  To  one 
able  to  enjoy  the  contemplation  of  a  Philadelphia 
Quaker  meeting,  or  the  silence  of  a  mighty  cathedral, 
or  who  thought  of  Beethoven,  the  deaf  creator  of 
mighty  oratorios  and  perfect  music,  this  soundless 


>AN   AS  A  DARK  A\D  BLOODY  GROUND    237 


harmony  seemed  not  so  strange.  Nevertheless,  the 
No  were  not  for  the  vulgar,  for  whom  in  Tokugarva 
times  grew  up  the  theatre,  where,  much  in  realism 
and  little  in  suggestion,  the  procedure  and  passions 
of  daily  life  were  realistically  set  forth  in  the  capital, 
to  the  delight  of  thousands,  and  in  the  provinces  to  the 
joy  of  millions.  Then  the  sentimentalities  of  the 
Fujiwara,  the  esoterics  of  the  heroic  Kamakura.  and 
the  incredible  refinements  of  the  Ashikaga  periods 
were  made  pul)lic  property,  suited  to  the  vulgar  com- 
prehension. Art  became  national,  and  the  love  of 
beauty  and  the  expression  of  it  penetrated  all  classes. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE   CHRISTIAN   CENTURY 

In  Japan,  the  Land  of  Paradoxes,  genealogy  and 
family  pride  lie  at  the  very  basis  of  society.  National 
and  clan  ancestors  are  worshipped  and  deified,  and 
law,  government,  and  social  custom  proceed  from  the 
notion  that  of  all  descended  from  heaven  or  living  on 
earth,  the  tie  is  one  of  blood.  This  is  the  dogma  of 
ancestor  worship. 

Nevertheless,  this  is  wholly  a  fiction,  for  neither  the 
vinculum  nor  the  thread  of  Japanese  history  is  found 
in  consanguinity,  but  adoption.  Even  in  the  family 
to-day,  a  half-dozen  persons,  in  no  way  related  to 
each  other  by  blood  relationship,  may  call  them- 
selves and  are  made  parents  and  children,  brothers 
and  sisters,  by  the  mere  conventionalism  of  law. 
The  Japanese  language,  besides  lacking  pronouns, 
does  not  possess  a  simple  word  for  brother  or  sister, 
but  has  only  expressions  borrowed  from  China  ex- 
pressing superiority  and  subordination;  that  is, 
elder  brother,  younger  brother,  senior  sister,  junior 
sister,  in  perpendicular  gradation.  There  can  be 
little  or  no  science  of  genealogy  in  Japan  until  her 
social    system    is    reconstructed.     Japanese    words 

238 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURY  239 

expressing  family  relations  have  neither  the  depth 
nor  the  meaning  that  they  possess  in  Christendom. 
They  are  legal  rather  than  natural  expressions.  In 
a  country  where  institutions  are  everything  and  the 
individual  next  to  nothing,  the  family,  not  the  single 
person,  being  the  unit  of  society,  and  where  pan- 
theism, not  monotheism,  is  the  creed  and  philosoi)hy, 
humanity  suffers  to  the  aggrandizement  of  the  insti- 
tution. Galton's  great  book  "Hereditary  Genius: 
Its  Laws  and  Consequences"  was  not  and  could  not 
have  been  written  in  the  land  where  families  have  the 
potency  of  legal  immortality. 

In  some  periods  of  the  nation's  history,  as  in  Ashi- 
kaga  times,  it  was  not  law  or  the  Emperor's  will 
that  created  families,  but  war  and  victory.  Men 
"created  their  own  ancestry  with  their  own  swords." 
A  bold  soldier  successful  in  rising  to  rank,  office,  or 
ue  forthwith  proceeded  to  invent  a  pedigree 
get  one  made  for  him  by  the  priest. 
This  was  the  time  of  division,  when  Japan  was 
pninuted  and  fractional.  It  was  also  the  darkest 
our  before  the  dawn,  for  the  idea  of  gaining  Kioto 
and  securing  the  Emperor's  person,  in  order  to  give 
peace  and  unity  to  Japan,  began  to  possess  great 
minds.  Conceived  as  a  principle  of  action  in  one 
brain,  and  transmitted  through  a  succession,  the  idea 
came  to  consummation,  and  a  long  peace  resulted. 
These  three  great  men  were  Nobunaga  (1533-1582), 
Hideyoshi  (153()-159S),  and  lyeyasu  (1542-1616). 
Under  their  genius,  out  of  anarchy  rose  order,  pros- 


^^ffro 


240  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

perity,  the  duarchy  of  Yedo  and  Kioto,  and  finally 
the  two  centuries  of  peace  and  of  virtual  Tokugawa 
monarchy. 

Yet  when  the  new  nobility,  consisting  of  the  mob 
of  rough  soldiers,  ex-bandits,  pirates,  and  robber 
barons,  led  by  Hideyoshi,  swooped  upon  Kioto,  they 
were  as  our  own  barbarian  ancestors  in  Rome.  The 
intense  refinement  and  art  instincts  of  the  Ashikaga 
regime  were  painful,  novel,  wholly  unintelligible,  and 
at  first  repellent.  In  the  city,  the  Japanese  Napoleon 
found  that  his  tasks  were  those  of  Peter  the  Great 
or  Bonaparte  in  civilizing  his  comrades  of  the  camp. 
There  were  no  long  beards  to  be  shaved  off  or  hide 
boots  to  be  polished  as  in  St.  Petersburg.  Neither 
was  there,  as  at  St.  Cloud,  a  Josephine  tactful  in  cover- 
ing the  arms  of  newly  made  general's  wives,  reddened 
by  dish-washing  and  scullion  work,  with  white  kid  and 
long-sleeved  gloves.  Nevertheless,  with  the  same 
energy  that  the  little  monkey-faced  Hideyoshi  had 
displayed  in  lopping  off  heads  and  winning  castles, 
he  applied  himself  to  smoothing  the  wrinkled  front 
of  war  by  means  of  the  charms  of  art.  Not  for  the 
'' horsey"  knights,  just  off  the  saddle,  was  the  work 
of  painters,  who,  in  black  and  white,  only  spoke  from 
mind  to  mind,  suggesting  more  than  is  expressed. 
The  new  art  must  be  visible,  realistic,  gorgeously 
rich,  blazing  with  color,  and  so  overloaded  with  detail, 
if  necessary,  that  it  would  leave  nothing  to  the 
imagination.  To  complete  the  calming  process,  — 
the  forcing  back  of  the  war  genii  into  their  bottles,  — 


THE  CHRISTIAN   CENTURY  241 


}L 

means  literally  hot  water  and  tea,  but  in  potency  it 
was  the  soul-calming  cult  of  aesthetic  and  peaceful 
camaraderie. 

^Umo    other    wholly    distinct    factors    influenced 
apanese  art  in  this  period.     Portut^uese  and  Span- 
iards at  home  had  been  under  the  spell  of  the  Venetian 
school  and  Titian's  coloring,  and  they  came  to  Japan 
with  ideas  that  influenced  native  artists  and  archi- 
tects.    In   Korea,   also,    during   the   great   invasion 
(1592-1598)  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  Japanese  warriors 
on  the  Continent  had  been  confronted  with  striking 
proofs  of  Korean  genius  in  art,  and  not  a  few  models 
of  taste  brought  from  China  during  the  Ming  or  Bright 
dynasty  (1369-1628).     Terribly   was   the  peninsula 
looted  of  its  potters,  pagodas,  pictures,  and  keramics 
^^by  the  Taiko's  soldiers.     The  glorious  ''old"  Sat- 
^^Hpk  pottery  owes  its  splendors  to  Korean  prisoners 
^fffwar  made  colonists  in  Japan. 

urthermore,  there  were  in  Nippon,  at  this  time, 
ers  of  artists.  Most  of  these  were  not  indeed 
gr(?at,  but  they  were  mightily  industrious.  Hide- 
^^^^,  by  setting  the  pace  for  the  barons,  made  work 
HHlBie  brush  and  colors.  He  had  conquered  in  war, 
ho  held  his  power  by  means  of  art.  In  order  to  keep 
the  forest  of  swords  quiet  in  their  scabbards,  he  must 
needs  turn  the  stream  of  manly  activities  into  castle 
building  and  the  decoration  of  interiors. 

The  genius  of  the  Japanese  lies  in  their  power  to 
transform  quickly  their  new  knowledge  gained  into 


242  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

working  principles.  Herein  lies  a  potency  to  excel 
their  teachers.  Little  do  they  invent.  Mightily  do 
they  adapt.  The  very  fact  that  Japan  has  produced 
no  man  overshadowingly  great,  a  Moses,  Confucius, 
or  Buddha,  explains  the  secret  of  her  amazing  power 
of  receptivity  and  appreciation,  and  hence  her 
unlimited  powers  of  progress, — even,  possibly,  to  the 
uniting  in  harmony  the  Orient  and  the  Occident. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  two  new  sets  of  European 
ideas  set  their  mark  on  Japan  as  potent  factors  of 
evolution.  The  erection  of  strong  castles,  able  to 
resist  the  new  artillery,  was  a  necessity,  for  the  age 
of  excellence  in  defence  had  passed  and  the  era  of 
superiority  in  attack  had  come.  The  great  Regent's 
models  were  followed.  The  seats  of  the  barons,  built 
according  to  novel  plans,  took  on  strange  features 
within  and  without,  many  of  them  borrowed  from 
Europe.  This  being  the  age  of  finest  Spanish  in- 
fantry and  artillery  and  of  improved  fortifications  in 
Europe,  where  the  mediaeval  castles  had  been  trans- 
formed into  forts  with  bastions,  the  Portuguese  in 
Japan  gave  new  hints  which  were  duly  followed. 
The  influence  of  these  is  seen  to-day  in  the  walls 
sloping  and  curved  at  the  corners  like  the  prow  of  a 
modern  steel  ram.  The  comparatively  simple  for- 
tresses of  the  Ashikaga  era,  as,  for  example,  the  castle 
of  the  second  Ho  jo  family  at  Odawara,  had  low 
walls  and  no  donjon  keep,  or  central  dominating 
tower.  Henceforth,  the  daimios'  castles  had  more 
stone  work  and  the  wooden  parts  .of  the  structure 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURY  243 

were  heavier  and  loftier.  The  statant  dolphin 
flashing  high  over  all  —  to  be  born  within  sight  of 
which  suggested  urban  polish  of  manners  —  rose 
far  higher  towards  the  blue  sky. 

Who  does  not  recall -the  soaring  magnificence  of 
the  Ten  Shu  Dai,  or  Lord  of  Heaven  Tower,  in  Tokio, 
or  at  Nagoya  and  Kuniamoto?  Rising  in  five 
stages  above  the  ramparts,  this  Heaven  (defying  or 
propitiating?)  place  of  defence  and  observation 
impressed  beholders  and  added  strength  through 
easier  vigilance.  The  first  baron  who,  in  1567, 
reared  such  a  structure  was  Matsunaga,  in  his  castle 
at  Tamon  near  Nara.  It  was  a  decided  novelty  as 
compared  with  the  old  sfiiro,  consisting  chiefly  of 
nagaya,  or  long  houses.  Its  name  was  written  at  first 
with  the  same  characters  with  which  the  Catholic 
missionaries  in  China  and  Japan  expressed  the  name 
of  (lod,  and  tlie  engineering  idea  came  from  them  or 
their  lay  friends.  Only  afterwards,  when  the  Roman 
religion  was  proscribed,  was  the  character  altered 
from  that  meaning  Lord,  to  one  signifying  guar- 
dian, or  the  Heavenly  protector.  The  popular  name 
for  this  tower  is  Tamon,  as  that  for  firearms  is  Tane- 
gashima. 

In  1586,  at  Osaka,  Hideyoshi  reared  in  megalithic 
masonry,  that  fills  with  admiration  the  visitor  of 
to-day,  what  became  a  model  for  many  more  castles 
built  on  a  lesser  scale.  A  map  of  feudal  Japan 
shows  hundreds  of  these  fortresses,  usually  in  river 
valleys  or  plains,  where  water  to  fill  the  moats  was 


244  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

in  sufficient  supply.  In  my  journeys  in  1871,  when 
these  were  still  garrisoned  and  in  commission,  I  was 
astonished  at  their  number  and  the  strength  of  some 
of  those  situated  in  favorable  natural  locations. 
The  standard  objection  to  hill  castles  or  any  fortifica- 
tions set  up  on  rocky  pinnacles  or  high  places  was  the 
difficulty  in  securing  water  for  drink,  cooking,  or  the 
quenching  of  fire-arrows. 

Yet  even  more  than  the  vast  fortifications  at  Osaka, 
as  a  model  for  reproduction,  was  the  Momoyama  or 
Peach  Mount  castle  at  Fushimi,  near  Kioto.  As  all 
over  the  Netherlands  one  hears  of  a  village  Hague,  or 
Brussels,  and  as  in  France  there  are  many  miniatures 
of  Paris,  so  at  Nikko  and  in  the  old  baronial  residences 
we  may  still  see  in  grand  reproduction  what  was  the 
Momoyama  style;  for  this  model,  though  no  longer 
extant,  was  copied  or  measurably  imitated  over  and 
over  again.  Hideyoshi  knew  the  effect  of  spectacular 
glory  over  the  populace,  and  he  dazzled  the  country 
folk  by  the  splendor  of  his  own  outings  and  the 
Court  processions.  He  lined  the  roads  for  miles  on 
sunny  da3^s  with  gorgeous  painted  screens.  Through- 
out the  land  the  walls  of  castles  and  palaces  blossomed 
in  green  and  gold.  The  favorite  figures  on  the 
screens  and  sliding  doors  were  colossal  pine  trees  and 
in  their  vicinity  the  symbolic  beasts  and  birds  usually 
associated  together  in  pairs  in  Chinese  and  Japanese 
art  and  poetry.  These  were  the  days  of  Kano  and  the 
hosts  of  artists  whom  he  trained,  until  '^he"  meant 
rather  an  academy  than  an  individual  person.     It  is 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURY 


245 


needless  to  say  that,  there  being  plenty  both  of  work 
and  of  overwork,  there  is  more  variety  than  is  agree- 
able in  the  quality  of  their  productions.  Hideyoshi 
made  himself  popular  by  stimulating  the  gold  miners 
to  furnish  leaf  and  foil  to  satisfy  the  demand  for  the 
precious  metal  that  symbolized  the  golden  light 
filling  the  Paradise  of  Amida.  The  passion  for  ar- 
chitecture that  would  satisfy  the  new  standards  of 
taste  and  the  general  activity  of  the  new  industrial- 
ism raised  wages  and  made  the  people  as  contented 
as  they  were  prosperous.  The  nation  now  began 
to  move  forward  to  its  acme  of  population,  even 
pressing  towards  that  limit  of  the  food  power  nf  Of 
archipelago,  which  was  reached  in  1700. 

In  the  decade  within  which  Nobunaga  was  born 
(1534)anJ_Jtewlea-  Pinto  (1537)  sailed  for  the  far 
East,  we  have  the  beginnings  of  Japan's  first  Chris- 
I'he  conjunction  ot  events,  birtli  and 


tian  century. 

sailing,  suggests  that  of  Emperor  Mutsuhito  and 
Conmiodore  Perry,  three  centuries  later;  in  the  latter 
cas(;  the  two  episodes  of  life  and  movement  falling 
on  nearly  the  same  day.  Pinto's  wonderful  stories 
about  the  clever  Japanese  created  the  scepticism 
that  coined  the  word  ''mendacious."  W  ilHam  Con- 
greve,  whose  smooth  lines,  ''music  hath  charms" 
and  "married  in  haste,"  have  almost  biblical  authority 
as  ^vell  as  daily  currency  of  speech  among  us,  has  in  his 
"Love  for  Love,"  written  in  1694,  or  a  century  and 
a  half  after  the  first  European,  Pinto,  had  landed  in 
Japan  — 


246  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

^'Ferdinand  Mendez  Pinto  was  but  a  type  of  thee 
—  thou  har  of  the  first  magnitude." 

Yet  now  we  know  that  Pinto  was  not  Munchausen. 
Landing  at  Tanegashima  in  1542,  he  brought  fire- 
arms to  Japan.  Within  six  months  there  were  six 
hundred  guns  or  pistols  made  and  used  by  Japanese. 
Having  been  metal  workers  and  artists  for  aeons,  yes, 
even  in  dolmen  days,  the  Japanese  were  then  as 
wonderful  in  imitation  and  adaptation  as  in  this 
twentieth-century  era  of  Shimose  explosives,  Uda 
mines,  Takamine  proteids,  and  home-built  battle- 
ships. After  Pinto  came  Xavier,  and  the  Southern 
and  Roman  form  of  Christianity,  with  its  sixteenth- 
century  corollaries,  the  Spanish  king's  possession  of 
half  the  world  and  the  Inquisition. 

Nobunaga's  ancestors  were  descendants  of  a  Taira 
lady,  who  with  her  child  had  fled  the  great  extermi- 
nation of  A.D.  1185,  and  with  her  son  reached  the 
village  of  Tsuda  in  Omi.  Marrying  the  village  elder, 
her  son  was  given  to  a  Shinto  priest  from  Ota  in 
Echizen.  The  boy  grew  up  to  found  the  family, 
which  took  its  name  from  the  village  and  for  several 
generations  furnished  Shinto  priests.  When  Ota 
Nobunaga's  father,  who  had  won  much  land  in 
the  skilful  use  of  arms,  died  in  1549,  the  young 
warrior  as  a  partisan  of  Ashikaga  conquered  Omi 
and  soon  became  master  of  Kioto.  In  his  Echizen 
campaign  against  the  Buddhist  war  lords  he  had 
two  retainers  named  Hideyoshi  and  lyeyasu.  All 
the  three   were   men   of  their  age  and  restorers  of 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURY  247 

Imperialism,  and  the  two  latter  were  destroyers  of 
Iberian  Christianity. 

The  methods  of  the  Portuguese  missionaries,  based 
on  the  Inquisition  and  not  so  different  from  those  of 
Nichiren,  so  far  from  seeming  strange  in  Japan,  were 
quite  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  the  times.  The 
Jesuits  were  members  of  an  order  founded  on  the 
military  principles  of  Loyola,  and  the  people  of 
Japan  were  acquainted  with  warring  sects  who 
fought  each  other.  The  ruling  idea  in  sixteenth- 
century  Japan  was  feudalism,  and  the  soldier  in  armor 
was  the  typical  man.  The  authority  and  discipline  of 
the  Christian  leaders  mightily  impressed  the  daimios 
and  especially  the  rising  conciueror  Nobunaga. 
This,  too,  was  the  apogee  of  Buddhist  priestly  power, 
of  military  monks,  and  monasteries  that  were  for- 
tresses. It  seemed  not  unreasonable  to  the  people 
that  force  should  meet  force,  even  in  religion,  for  that 
was  the  way  of  the  bonzes.  In  Japan,  no  less  than 
in  Europe,  cujus  regio,  ejiis  religio,  was  the  legal  motto. 
Business  and  religion  were  on  a  military  basis.  Bar- 
gains were  made  and  doctrines  propagated  by  spear 
and  cannon. 

Indeed,  Nobunaga  was  rather  pleased  with  than 
repulsed  by  the  foreigners,  for  he  had  a  cosmopolitan 
mind.  Moreover,  since  any  tool  would  serve  in  hum- 
bling the  bonzes,  he  warmly  patronized  the  friars. 
Th(3  one  aim  of  his  life  was  to  disarm  the  monks  and 
destroy  forever  the  temporal  and  political  power  of 
Buddhism,  and  he  succeeded.     One  after  the  other, 


248  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

he  attacked  and  dismantled  the  monasteries,  and  in 
1571  he  destroyed  Hiyeisan  and  left  it  in  ashes. 

From  Nobunaga's  blows  Japanese  Buddhism  as  a 
political  force  has  never  recovered.  After  his  days, 
the  priests  were  ''religious,"  but  not  warriors  and 
dictators.  One  of  the  greatest  figures  in  Japanese 
history,  he  put  an  end  to  the  petty  civil  wars  that 
desolated  the  empire  for  a  century.  He  could  not 
subdue  all  the  chieftains,  but  he  restored  order  in 
thirty  of  the  sixty-six  provinces. 

In  1569  he  was  able  to  dominate  Kioto,  serving  the 
feeble  shogun,  but  in  1574  he  turned  his  arms  against 
him  and  deposed  Ashikaga  Yoshiaki,  the  last  of  the 
line.  Thenceforward  there  was  no  shogun,  or  Great 
Barbarian  Subduer,  in  Japan,  until  lyeyasu,  having 
the  substance,  received  the  title  in  1603.  As  virtual 
governor  of  the  empire  from  Kioto,  Nobunaga  became 
Junior  Premier  or  Inner  Prime  Minister.  He  began 
the  work  of  national  reorganization,  which  his  suc- 
cessors carried  out.  Not  afraid  of  strangers,  he 
encouraged  foreign  commerce,  and  one  of  his  ambi- 
tions was  to  bring  Japan  into  the  brotherhood  of 
nations  —  a  design  frustrated  for  three  centuries  by 
the  Tokugawa.  Under  his  favor  the  foreign  mission- 
aries made  astonishing  success,  though  of  a  kind  more 
worldly  than  spiritual.  In  1582,  at  the  age  of  forty- 
eight,  he  was  slain  by  an  assassin,  Mitsuhide,  who,  as 
the  proverb  pictures  him,  ''reigned  three  days." 
The  Emperor  at  once  conferred  upon  Nobunaga  the 
posthumous  title  of  Dai  Jo  Dai  Jin,  or  Great  Minister 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURY  249 

of  the  Great  Government,  thus  elevating  him  to  the 
second  degree  of  the  first  rank. 

I  spent  a  year  in  Echizen,  the  scene  of  some  of  the 
grandest  exploits  of  Nobunaga,  as  well  as  of  Hideyoshi. 
Among  the  people  there  the  traditional  portrait 
of  this  great-minded  man  is  as  flattering  as  it  is  in  the 
writings  of  his  European  contemporaries  then  in 
Japan.  The  best  accounts  of  his  life  and  work  may 
be  found  in  Murdoch  and  Yamagata's  noble  ''  History 
of  Japan,'' 

Most  romantic  of  all  figures  in  the  historical  gallery 
of  modern  Japan  is  that  of  Hideyoshi  (153G-1598), 
better  known  by  his  title  of  Taiko  or  Retired  Regent. 
As  a  little  monkey-faced  boy,  he  was  meant  by  his 
panints  to  be  a  bonze,  and  at  fifteen  became  a  neo- 
phyte. He  ran  away  from  the  temple  and  was  soon 
in  the  service  of  Nobunaga.  By  his  wit,  valor,  wis- 
dom, impudence  and  modesty  in  alternation,  and 
unceasing  exertions,  he  rose  to  be,  in  time  and  at 
the  opportune  moment,  the  successor  of  Nobunaga. 
Hearing  of  the  latter's  death,  he  made  truce  with 
Chc>shiu,  and  hastening  to  Kioto,  attacked  the 
traitor,  Mutsuhide.  Then  he  marched  against  Sat- 
suma  and  with  incredible  celerity  subdued  the  whole 
Southwest  for  the  Emperor.  He  then  entered  upon 
the  thorough  work  of  pacifying  the  East  land.  He 
captured  Odawara  castle,  seat  of  the  second  Hojo 
clan,  and  selected  Yedo  as  the  future  capital  of  the 
Kuanto  and  put  lyeyasu  in  charge.  He  chose  an 
administrative  council  of  five  daimios  to  aid  him  in 


250  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

something  like  representative  or  federal  administra- 
tion. In  many  ways  he  planned  in  outline  the  great 
schemes  which  lyeyasu  wrought  out.  Of  his  Korean 
expedition,  we  have  written  at  large  in  ''Corea,  the 
Hermit  Nation." 

Hideyoshi  could  not  be  shogun,  because  only  men 
of  Minamoto  descent  ever  held  the  title,  but  in  spite 
of  precedents  to  the  contrary,  and  the  hatred  of  the 
monopolizing  and  contemptuous  Fujiwara,  he  got 
himself  in  1586  made  Kuambaku  or  Regent,  and  was 
thus  the  executive  officer  nearest  the  Emperor. 
Because  in  1591  he  retired  nominally  in  favor  of  his 
son  (though  still  holding  the  reality  of  power),  he 
was  called  the  Taiko,  and  as  such  is  still  known  to 
the  people. 

Under  the  rival  commanders  Konishi,  a  zealous 
Christian,  and  Kato,  a  fierce  Buddhist,  the  many- 
bannered  fleets  bore  to  Korea  armies  of  invasion. 
These,  with  their  guns  and  cannon,  at  first  overran 
the  peninsula,  but  were  driven  back  by  Chinese  allies 
of  the  Koreans  sent  by  the  Ming  emperors,  who  were 
aided  also  by  their  newly  invented  bombshells,  and 
the  valor  of  the  Korean  Admiral  Yu,  whose  ironclad 
ram  sunk  the  Japanese  ships.  After  seven  years, 
the  Taiko  from  his  deathbed  recalled  his  hosts. 

One  of  the  most  natural  of  Hideyoshi's  ambitious 
propositions  was  to  found  a  family;  another,  and  a 
very  Japanese  one,  was  to  have  himself  enrolled 
among  the  gods.  To  this  end,  he  had.  a  temple 
erected  in  Kioto,  in  which  all  the  iron  work  is  said  to 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURY  251 

have  been  made  from  sword  blades.  This  enterprise 
of  automatic  god-making,  which  seems  from  an 
Occidental  point  of  view  insane  conceit,  was  not  at 
all  a  strange  proceeding  in  Japan ;  for,  as  gods  go,  and 
have  been  made  and  multiplied  in  old  Nippon,  the 
Taiko  was  as  promising  a  candidate  for  apotheosis 
as  any  of  the  previous  eight  millions  or  so,  in  that 
national  pantheon,  which  is  now  rapidly  becoming  the 
national  junkshop.  When  one  remembers  how  many 
disreputable  characters,  some  even  hke  Masakado 
Do,  the  traitor,  crowded  themselves  into  this  veri- 
table menagerie  of  deities,  one  can  hardly,  even  from 
a  pagan  point  of  view,  blame  severely  the  puerility  of 
the  Taiko's  act.  It  would  have  been  in  the  Shinto, 
not  the  Buddhist  collection,  that  Hideyoshi  would 

have    been    classified.  /liig aiiccessor    lyeyas^   is 

commonly  known  as  GongenSama,  that  is^  a_t£m- 
porary  manifestation  of  BuddTia,  for  he  patronized  the 
Buddhists.  The  god-factory  of  JapantPMimrrio^^Ml. 
Ifc  may  be  that,  chiefly  because  the  only  real  oppo- 
sition to  his  egoistic  activities,  to  be  posthumously 
carried  on,  could  come  from  the  Christians,  that  the 
Taiko  began  the  first  persecutions  against  them. 
At  Nagasaki,  by  his  orders,  on  February  5,  1597, 
tw(;nty-six  Christians  were  crucified.  Probably  car- 
ing as  little  for  gods  as  for  men,  except  as  they  minis- 
ter(3d  to  his  aggrandizement,  the  Taiko  was  as  zealous 
a  })atron  of  Shinto  as  he  was  a  fierce  nationalist. 
He  reared  the  first  of  many  hundreds  of  living  cruci- 
fixes, whereon  martyrs  suffered. 


252  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

It  is  unquestionable  that  the  Japanese  nation  took 
some  long  forward  steps  under  this  great  man's  rule, 
and  as  the  people  are  more  important  than  even  their 
leaders,  we  give  our  space  to  picturing  them,  rather 
than  to  the  Taiko.  We  refer  those  who  would  know 
more  of  the  monkey-faced  upstart  who  humbled  both 
Court  and  feudal  barons,  ruled  Japan  for  nearly  two 
decades,  and  laid  the  foundations  for  increased  national 
welfare,  to  Walter  Dening's  ''New  Life  of  Toyotomi 
Hideyoshi "  for  a  scholarly  and  popular  biography,  and 
to  Murdock  and  Yamagata's  work,  which  is  at  once 
voluminous  and  accurate. 

lyeyasu's  place  in  national  history  may  be  regarded 
from  many  viewpoints,  but  a  comic  artist  shows  best 
the  situation.  It  takes  much  muscle  to  make  the 
mochi  cakes  in  which  Japanese  delight.  By  hard 
and  long  pounding  in  a  mortar  with  a  long-handled 
heavy  woodein  mallet,  the  mass  of  glutinous  boiled 
rice  is  made  ready  for  the  baking.  Nobunaga  and 
Mitsuhide  are  pictured  as  pounding  the  dough, 
Hideyoshi  makes  and  cooks  the  pastry,  but  it  is 
lyeyasu  sitting  on  cushions  who  eats  the  cake  and 
gets  the  glory. 

In  Kodzuke,  in  the  district  of  Nitta,  is  the  village 
of  Tokugawa.  It  was  founded  in  the  thirteenth 
century  by  Nitta  Yoshishige,  ancestor  of  the  famous 
families  Tokugawa,  Matsudaira,  Sakai,  and  others. 
According  to  the  legend,  on  entering  the  village  of 
Sakai,  one  of  the  lords  was  given  in  token  a  flat  round 
cake,  laid  on  three  mallow  or  asarum  leaves.     This 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURY  253 

unconscious  design  became  the  renowned  trefoil 
crest  that  for  centuries  gUttered  as  the  golden  symbol 
of  a  family,  and  even  of  national  power. 

lyeyasu,  born  in  1542,  the  year  of  the  first  Euro- 
pean's arrival,  put  on  armor  at  the  age  of  twelve. 
He  served  many  castle  lords  and  field  commanders, 
receiving  in  1590  the  fief  of.  the  Kuanto  provinces. 
He  was  one  of  the  five  great  barons  associated  in 
civil  administration  with  the  Taiko,  after  whose 
death  he  commanded  80,000  men  against  the  hostile 
league  of  130,000  allied  clansmen  opposed  to  him  in 
the  decisive  battle  of  Sekigahara,  or  Field  of  the 
Barrier,  on  the  21st  of  October,  1000.  The  story  is 
told  in  Chapter  XXVI  of  ''The  Mikado's  Empire," 
and  better  in  Murdock's  ''History  of  Japan."  Forty 
thousand  heads  were  the  trophies  of  this  campaign, 
making  an  awful  picture  of  the  horrors  of  war.  To 
use  an  illustration  not  intelligible  in  old  Japan,  where 
washed  clothes  were  stretched  on  a  board  in  the  sun 
to  dry,  the  gory  heads,  when  tied  by  their  topknots, 
wei'e  hung  like  garments  on  a  Monday  clothes-line, 
officially  counted,  and  their  quality  made  the  basis 
of  award  in  promotion. 

lyeyasu,  the  victor,  in  wise  alertness  tied  with 
knots  the  cords  of  his  helmet,  and  kept  his  head  level. 
He  was  magnanimous  in  exercising  his  unquestioned 
authority.  He  reorganized  the  feudal  fiefs  of  the 
empire,  dividing  old  Yamato  among  seven  vassals. 
While  redoubling  the  honors  accorded  to  the  Mikado, 
and  enriching  the  Kioto  court  nobles,  he  kept  complete 


254  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

control  of  the  executive  power.  He  called  to  his 
assistance  wise  counsellors.  Foreseeing,  or  at  least 
determining  to  secure  for  Japan  a  long  peace,  he 
established  in  Yedo  the  old  libraries  from  Ashikaga 
and  from  Kanazawa,  near  Kamakura,  and  began  the 
collection  of  manuscripts  and  the  printing  of  the 
rarest  and  most  useful  books.  He  reestabhshed 
learning  and  became  the  generous  patron  of  scholars. 
He  received  the  title  of  Shogun  in  1603,  but  abdicated 
two  years  afterwards  in  favor  of  his  son  Hidetada. 
Retiring  to  Sumpu  in  Suruga,  now  Shidzuoka,  he 
devoted  his  energies  to  literature  and  the  arts  of  peace. 

Yet  during  all  this  time  Hideyori,  the  son  of  the 
late  Taiko,  regarded  lyeyasu  as  a  usurper,  and  around 
this  youth  gathered  the  elements  of  discontent  — 
the  disappointed  men  and  those  made  ronin  by  the 
recent  changes.  The  great  earthquake  of  1596  had 
destroyed  the  Kioto  temple  begun  by  Hideyoshi  for 
his  own  deification.  It  was  rebuilt  by  Hideyori,  but 
in  the  inscription  on  a  bell  cast  for  i^  lyeyasu  pro- 
fessed to  discern  an  insult  to  himself,  and  in  1615 
made  war  against  the  partisans  opposed  to  him. 
These  gathered  in  the  castle  of  Osaka,  which  was 
besieged  and  taken.  The  vast  structure,  given  to  the 
flames,  became  Hideyori's  place  of  cremation,  and 
the  house  of  Taiko  ended  in  fire  and  smoke.  The 
castle  has  never  been  rebuilt. 

Returning  to  Shidzuoka,  lyeyasu  busied  himself 
in  making  codes  for  huge  and  hiike,  and  planned  those 
radical   measures,   which   meant   the   extinction   of 


'>^2?i 


Mf 


THE  CHRISTIAN   CENTURY 


255 


Christianity,  the  exclusion  of  foreigners,  and  the 
inclusion  of  the  people  of  Japan  from  all  the  world. 
The  making  of  a  nation  on  nobler  principles,  and  in 
fraternity  with  mankind,  was  postponed  for  centuries, 
eyasu  died  at  the  age  of  seventy-four.  Ilis  ashes 
were  deposited  first  at  Kunozan,  overlooking  the 
Sea  of  Suruga,  and  later  wore  transported  with  vast 
pomp  to  gorgeous  Nikko. 

In  1619  the  Kioto  temple  in  honor  of  Hideyoshi 
was  destroyed  by  lyeyasu's  henchman,  Itakura,  the 
city  governor.  Momoyama  castle,  the  Versailles 
of  the  Ja})anese  Paris,  was  also  demolished  and  its 
art  decorations  and  building  material  distributed 
among  the  temples  in  Kioto.  Nijo  castle  was  made 
the  seat  of  the  Bakufu's  Resident,  the  governor  of 
Kioto,  and  the  headquarters  of  their  garrison.  Both 
mihtary  and  civil  influences  from  Yedo  could  thus 

Hys  overawe  the  Imperial  palace.  Artistic  decora- 
njns  were  lavished  on  its  interior  walls,  so  that  in 
jo  castle  we  find  the  most  distinctive  specimens  of 
in  the  early  Tokugawa  era.  We  shall  hear  of 
ijo  again.  As  in  1870  there  was  an  event  of  German 
significance  in  the  halls  of  Louis  XIV,  so  in  1868,  in 
the  seat  and  stronghold  of  Tokugawa  power  in  Kioto, 

Rjremony  took  place  that  meant  both   fall  and 
sing,   the    burial   of   the   limited    past   and   the 
resurrection  of  the  New  Japan.     It  was  in  the  Japan- 
Versailles  that   proclamation  was  made  of    the 
lition  of  duarchy  and  the  restoration  of  the  old 
and  the  creation  of  the  new  empire. 


mm  I 

lions 

4° 

Nno 


256  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

We  have  called  the  period  from  Mendez  Pinto's 
landing  in  1537  to  the  suppression,  by  a  vast  military 
force,  of  the  Shimabara  rebellion  of  Christians  — 
and  others,  in  1637  —  so  ably  and  fully  treated  in 
Murdock  and  Yamagata's  '^History  of  Japan"  — 
'Hhe  Christian  century."  From  the  latter  date,  the 
'^ corrupt  sect"  was  pubHcly  banned,  while  in  secret 
and  during  night's  hours  the  consoling  truths  of  'Hhe 
Jesus  religion"  were  taught  by  parents  to  the  rising 
generation.  (Springing  to  life  again  with  fresh 
power  in  1867,  the  Christians  were  persecuted  even 
by  the  new  Government,  which  later  was  so  thor- 
oughly converted  that,  besides  fixing  guarantees  of 
religious  freedom  in  the  constitution,  the  Mikado 
received  in  1906  a  legate  of  the  pope  with  courtesy 
and  honor,  and'  in  May,  1907,  General  Booth  of  the 
World's  Salvation  Army. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE   SELF-ISOLATED    HERMIT   NATION 

the  final  evolution  of  Japanese  feudalism  under 
lyeyasu  and  his  successors,  of  which  we  have 
treated  in  detail  in  ''The  Mikado's  Empire,"  we  see 
instead  of  the  federal  and  partially  representative 
system  of  Hideyoshi,  a  purely  autocratic  governmental 
machine,  in  effect,  a  new  monarchy.  Social  and 
political  barriers  were  reared  which  kept  the  lower 
folk  from  trespassing  on  the  pride  or.  privilege  of  the 
higher  classes.  Farmers,  mechanics,  and  merchants, 
latter  forming  the  lowest  class,  were  disarmed 
only  of  swords  and  weapons,  but  of  all  visible 
einblems  of  luxury.  Yet  many  privileges  were 
■ted  them,  and  life  and  property  were  secure  to 
Hn  beyond  the  highest  hopes  of  the  Ashikaga  age. 
Mechanical  trades,  domestic  commerce,  and  agricul- 
ture were  generously  encouraged. 
Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  there  flourished  within 
feudal  system  of  Japan  an  industrialism  which 
surprising  in  its  extent,  considering  that  the 
niition  was  in  policy  a  hermit.  Family  crests  and 
surnames,  classic  music  and  the  Kioto  dance,  allowed 
in  the  higher  ranks,  were  not  for  the  real  producers 

257 


natior 


258  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

or  exchangers  of  wealth.  As  a  rule,  the  trader,  even 
though  rich,  could  not  ride  on  a  horse  in  the  presence 
of  a  samurai,  or  wear  other  than  cotton  clothes,  or 
dwell  under  any  but  a  thatched  roof.  Being  reckoned 
of  samurai  rank,  I  was,  myself,  when  taking  my 
walks  in  Echizen  the  innocent  cause  of  making  hun- 
dreds of  men  dismount  to  their  inconvenience,  or 
get  down  on  all  fours  in  mud  or  slush.  Society  was 
graded  to  milHmetres.  Japan  was  pretty,  but  its 
beauty  was  that  of  the  cloisonne,  with  its  thousands 
of  tiny  metal  cells.  It  was  sweet,  but  the  divisions 
were  as  numerous  as  in  a  honeycomb.  The  nation 
grew,  not  a  great  tree,  but  rather  like  a  thousand 
miniature  and  stunted  plants  in  pots,  each  with  its 
taproot  cut.  At  top,  society  meant  power,  pride, 
luxury,  esoteric  pleasures;  at  the  base  and  edges, 
subordination,  oppression,  poverty,  disease,  starva- 
tion, and  the  slow  rotting  to  death  of  millions.  To 
artist  and  romancer,  feudal  Japan  seems  as  lovely 
as  do  Sir  Walter  Scott's  middle  ages  —  which  never 
existed  except  as  he  chose,  by  selection  and  ehsion  of 
the  disagreeable,  to  imagine  them. 

Into  the  details  of  Tokugawa  feudalism,  which 
existed  by  law  established  until  1867,  and  virtually 
until  1871,  space  does  not  permit  us  to  enter.  The 
Japan  most  familiar  to  our  fathers,  in  the  bulky 
literature  of  European  writers,  is  that  of  the  Yedo 
period.  Yet  while  in  one  respect,  on  the  side  of  land- 
ownership  and  the  political  institutions  resulting 
therefrom,  this  system  of  society  approached  more 


THE  SELF-ISOLATED  HERMIT  NATION       259 


perfectly  our  ideals  of  the  feudal  system,  there  is  to 
be  noted  the  same  radical  differences  as  compared 
with  the  European  norm  and  form  of  feudalism,  as 
are  found  in  the  personnel,  the  thought,  the  language, 
and  the  spirit  of  those  peoples  who  have  most  strenu- 
ously cultivated  the  idea  of  personality,  as  compared 
with  those  in  which  the  communal  dwarfs  the  in- 
dividual. There  was  in  Japan  nothing  like  an  oath 
of  allegiance,  or  of  ''homage,"  as  we  understand  the 
term,  on  the  part  of  the  daimios  to  their  suzerain. 
The  barons  were  rather  tributary  potentates.  Some 
of  the  feudatories,  like  Satsuma  and  Choshiu,  were 
semi-independent  rulers,  in  whose  dominions  no 
emissary  of  the  Yedo  government  was  allowed.  Tlu; 
shogun  himself  was  only  the  most  powerful  of  the 
daimios,  who  had  assumed  the  protectorship  of  the 
sovereign. 

The  actual  lord  of  land  and  castle  was  usually  a 
figurehead,  who  could  not  control  his  own  reputed 
revenue.  This,  after  all,  was  not  what  he  actually 
got,  but  the  amount  of  rice  at  which  he  was  assessed. 
In  poor  years  there  was  a  vast  difference  between 
calculation  on  paper  and  reality  in  bin  or  bag.  Often, 
however,  nominal  assessment  was  below  the  real 
figure.  It  frequently  happened  also  that  the  more 
pr()sperous  samurai,  especially  in  those  provinces 
like  Satsuma,  where  there  was  little  or  no  .distinction 
between  knights  and  farmers,  were  richer  than  small 
daimios.  Many  great  retainers  had  lands  assessed 
at  75,000  bushels  of  rice.     Large  or  small,  the  daimio 


260  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

had  to  feed  his  retainers.  They  all  depended  on  his 
bounty. 

Such  a  system  could  work  so  long  as  there  were  no 
disturbing  influences,  such  as  the  presence  of  for- 
eigners, but  as  soon  as  new  economic  forces  entered, 
it  must  fall.  Rice  was  the  chief  crop  and  the  standard 
of  value,  and  in  this  cereal  both  taxes  and  salaries 
were  paid.  The  revenue  of  a  clan  territory  was  the 
amount  of  rice  which  it  was  supposed  to  produce. 
Calculation  and  reality  being  equal,  the  clan  revenue — 
that  is,  of  lord  and  retainers — would  be  about  one-half 
of  the  whole  product  raised  from  the  soil.  The  coming 
of  the  foreigner,  in  1860,  raised  the  price  of  rice  from 
two  to  ten  dollars  per  koku  of  five  bushels. 

The  tax  on  the  soil  was  of  two  kinds :  on  irrigated 
rice  lands  and  on  dry  ploughed  land.  A  subdivision 
was  made  into  four  classes :  good,  middling,  poor,  and 
bad.  The  general  survey  of  Tokugawa  territory  in 
the  regions  of  the  direct  vassals  and  the  three  princely 
families,  Mito,  Owari,  and  Kii,  was  made  about 
A.D.  1620.  It  classified  the  land  as  to  quality  and 
apportioned  the  amount  to  be  paid  to  the  authorities, 
making  the  relation  between  assessed  produce  and 
farmer's  tax  from  ten  to  four.  Though  great  fluc- 
tuations in  value  took  place  between  1620  and  1856, 
causing  great  irregularities  and  much  injustice,  rice 
land  was  usually  worth  five  times  as  much  as  arable 
land,  and  a  good  rice  field  ought  to  yield  in-  good 
years  eight  per  cent.  Only  one-twelfth  of  the  soil 
of  Japan  has  ever  been  cultivated. 


THE  SELF-ISOLATED  HERMIT  NATIOX       261 

is  a  long  story  to  tell  of  the  causes  and  their 
operations,  which  led  to  the  fall  of  the  feudal  system, 
but  the  signing  of  the  initial  treaty  with  Occidentals 
was  the  signal  of  doom.  The  intellectual  and  eco- 
nomic movements,  already  active  within  the  empire, 
would  sooner  or  later  have  destroyed  duarchy;  but 
whether  feudalism  would  have  been  abolished,  except 
after  a  long  struggle  lasting  many  years,  is  an  open 
question.  Nevertheless,  it  was  dead  and  buried 
within  twenty  years  after  Perry  dropped  anchor  at 
Uraga  in  1853.  How  and  wliy  this  hoary  system, 
seven  hundred  years  old,  and  in  the  eyes  of  afhnirers 
sur(;ly  destined  to  enjoy  a  life  as  long  as  that  of 
the  Eternal  City, crumbled  to  dust  at  the  touch  of  a 
few  daring  parvenu,  has  been  already  told  in  "The 
Mikado's  Empire." 

Twice  during  the  Tokugawa  era  was  the  family 
of  rulers  in  Yedo  brought  into  direct  relations  with  the 
Thi-one.  In  the  one  case,  the  shogun  personally  nomi- 
nated the  occupant.  In  the  other,  the  prestige  of 
a  waning  house  was  restored  by  the  marriage  of  a 
sister  of.  the  Emperor  to  the  shogun.  The  episodes 
in  point  of  time  were  about  two  centuries  apart. 

After  Shotoku  (765-769)  nine  hundred  years  pass 
before  another  woman  sits  on  the  Imperial  Throne. 
Then  the  novelty  of  an  Imperial  lady's  reign  —  a 
reigning  without  governing  —  came  by  dictation  from 
Yedo.  Miojo  (1630-1643),  who  succeeded  her  own 
father,  was  niece  of  the  mighty  shogun  lyemitsu. 
The  little  maid-Mikado,  who  was  the  109th  in  the 


262  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

Imperial  succession,  was  but  six  years  old.  The 
pretty  puppet  was  pulled  by  the  wires  from  the 
eastern  city  on  the  bay,  all  real  power  being  in  the 
hands  of  her  uncle,  who  lived  in  far-off  Adzuma, 
but  whose  castle  of  Nijo  in  Kioto  held  both  a  Resident 
and  military  garrison.  When  fifteen  years  old,  at 
avuncular  bidding,  the  maiden  abdicated  in  favor  of 
Go  Komio;  that  is,  Komio  the  second  (1644-1654). 
She  lived  to  be  fifty-three  years  old. 

The  last  lady  to  act  as  Mikado,  and  the  117th  of 
the  line,  before  the  constitution  of  1889  in  its  second 
article  declared  that  '^The  Imperial  Throne  shall  be 
succeeded  to  by  Imperial  Male  descendants,  according 
to  the  provisions  of  the  Imperial  House  Law,"  was 
Go  Sakuramachi  (or  Cherry  Street  No.  2),  who  in  1763 
succeeded  her  grandfather  of  the  same  name  (1736- 
1746)  and  her  brother  Momozomo  (1747-1762).  She 
too  was  but  a  marionette  for  the  Yedo  wires,  and  at 
the  end  of  her  non-governing  reign  of  seven  years, 
she  retired  into  private  life,  dying  at  the  age  of 
forty-four. 

Of  the  Imperial  princess,  Kadzu  no  Miya,  sister  of 
the  Mikado  Komei  (1847-1866),  and  aunt  of  the 
present  Emperor,  who  married  the  shogun  lyemochi 
(1858-1866),  we  shall  speak  again.  Let  us  now  look 
at  the  masses  of  the  people. 

What  was  the  population  of  the  Sun  Land  during 
the  various  ages,  Aryan,  Yamato,  Japanese?  Few 
native  writers  until  very  recent  times  have  ever  given 
much  critical  attention  to  this   subject.     The   one 


■■p 


THE  SELF-ISOLATED  HERMIT  NATION       263 


official  end  in  view,  when  inquiring  into  the  numbers 
of  human  beings,  was  the  tax-roll. 

The  niediieval  records  show  that  for  the  purposes 
xation,  officers  were  sent  into  all  of  the  sixty-six 
ces  to  enumerate  the  people,  but  as  there  was 
an" enormous  number  of  serfs  and  outcasts,  and  as 
children  were  ignored,  these  enumerations,  even  if 
correct  so  far  as  they  went,  could  never  be  of  the 
nature  of  a  census.  During  the  long  periods  of  civil 
war,  when  Japan  was  divided  into  feudal  fractions, 
nothing  like  a  census  of  the  empire  was  thought  of. 

Arai  Ilakuseki  (1656-1725)  tells  us  that  in  the  reign 
of  Kimmei  (540-571)  "the  population  was  set  down 
at  4,9()9,890."  In  the  time  of  Shomu  (724-748)  it 
had  grown  to  8,631,074,  "though  this  is  not  given  in 
the  history."  In  a  word,  we  have  no  trustworthy 
data  to  go  upon.  In  the  sixteenth  century,  there 
between  fifteen  and  twenty  million  souls, 
Jajmn  being  then  as  populous  as  some  of  the  great 
States  in  Europe,  Austria  having  sixteen,  France 
fourteen,  Spain  eight,  and  England  five  millions, 
the  population  of  Japan  in  the  Tokugawa  period, 
sor  Droppers  has  written  most  luminously. 
He  shows  that  even  the  resumption  of  enumeration  in 
the  eighteenth  century  was  so  faulty  in  method,  on 
account  of  various  omissions,  as  to  be  almost  worth- 
less. From  the  beginning  of  the  Great  Peace,  popu- 
lation increased  with  rapidity,  reaching  its  maximum 
probably  about  1700.  The  influence  of  the  long  calm 
had  spent  itself  before  the  year  1721,  when  the  first 


(iai>a 

Japai 

State 
fourtL_. 


264  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

regular  census  was  taken.  Henceforward  there  was 
no  real  increase  of  population,  because  of  two  reasons. 
No  efforts  were  made  to  enlarge  the  area  of  tillable 
land  or  to  stimulate  the  productivity  of  the  soil. 
The  Tokugawa  policy  of  exclusion  of  foreigners  and 
inclusion  of  natives  tended  to  keep  things  as  they 
were.  Each  daimio  pursued  a  narrow  provincial 
policy,  being  quite  willing  to  save  himself  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  country.  There  was  little  patriotism 
and  no  economical  unity.  Land  transport  through 
the  various  daimios'  territories  was  very  difficult 
to  secure,  on  account  of  clan  feuds  and  the  rivalries 
and  jealousies  of  the  barons. 

Furthermore,  preventable  diseases  were  constantly 
depleting  the  population.  The  processions  of  the 
daimios,  to  and  from  their  castles  to  the  capital  and 
back  again,  sowed  the  seeds  of  death,  by  spreading 
contagious  disease  everywhere.  Traffic  along  the 
main  arteries  of  the  empire  acted  also  in  the  interest 
of  contagion.  Smallpox,  measles,  dysentery,  and 
typhus  fever  made  awful  ravages.  Frequent  earth- 
quakes, fires,  floods,  and  epidemics  weakened  the 
national  registers,  but  the  great  reducers  of  Japanese 
population  were  the  famines.  These,  occurring  al- 
most in  regular  succession,  not  only  prevented  natural 
increase,  but  made  the  figures  of  population  drop 
1,000,000,  1,500,000,  or  2,000,000  in  a  single  year. 
Four  generations,  or  120  years  from  the  founding  of 
Yedo,  the  figures  on  the  national  register  were  26,061,- 
830.     In  1792  there  were  24,891,441  souls,  and  in 


THE  SELF-ISOLATED  HERMIT  NATION 


265 


184G,  26,907,625;  no  record  in  the  years  between  ris- 
ing to  27,000,000.  In  1732,  the  year  of  the  highest 
figures,  the  register  showed  26,621,816.  In  a  word, 
Japan's  population  was  stationary  for  over  a  century. 
During  these  times  of  famine  the  government  opened 
its  rice  storehouses  and  fed  the  people.  One  of  the 
most  destructive  periods  of  wastage  was  from  1781 
to  1788. 

Another  awful  famine,  the  monuments  of  which,  in 
the  form  of  heaps  of  cn^mation  ashes,  I  have  myself 
witnessed,  was  the  famine  in  theT(»mpo  era,  1830-1844. 
In  1871,  the  memory  of  its  awful  ravages  was  still 
fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  }x*ople  of  Echizen.  Now 
great  trees  grow  upon  the  mounds  of  bone-ashes,  and 
Nature  has ''healed  and  reconciled  to  herself,  with  the 
sweet  oblivion  of  flowers,"  the  awful  scar.  There  are 
hundreds  of  such  mounds,  unknown  to  tourists  or 
even  to  foreigners  long  dwelling  in  the  land.  Few 
writers  refer  to  these  proofs  that,  of  necessity  and 
under  the  stern  education  of  nature,  the  Japanese  have 
always  Innm  compc^Ued  to  live  the  simple  life.  With 
foreign  commerce,  however,  Japan  is  like  Great 
Britain,  which  cannot  feed  from  the  soil  her  own 
people,  but  can  nourish  a  constantly  increasing 
population,  because  of  her  ships.  Selfish  seclusion 
led  to  starvation.  Brotherhood  in  the  world's  family 
banishes  all  fear  of  want.  Far  better  had  the  money 
spent  for  memorial  bronze  lanterns  at  the  shoguns' 
tombs  been  used  for  the  people. 

The  annals  record  also  disasters  of  every  descrip- 


266  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

tion,  rain,  flood,  fire,  earthquake,  volcano  eruptions, 
and  epidemics  of  deadly  diseases,  which  not  only 
explain  the  low  figures  of  population,  but  also  show 
how  these  island  people  have  been  disciplined,  A 
survey  helps  to  account  for  their  remarkable  tempera- 
ment, which  is  ''a  most  happy  and  harmonious  com- 
bination of  all  the  antinomies  and  contrarieties  of 
human  nature."  The  Japanese  are  ''at  the  same  time 
active  and  passive,  highly  intellectual  and  childish; 
ideally  clean,  but  doing  things  that  are  opposite  to 
cleanness;  markedly  proud  and  senselessly  obsequi- 
ous; forbearing  and  vindictive;  kind-hearted  and 
betraying;  rational  and  emotional;  extremely  scep- 
tical and  intensely  superstitious;  the  masters  of  the 
sublime  and  base,  a  nation  which  has  been  an  in- 
soluble enigma  both  to  the  psychologist  and  ethnolo- 
gist" —  all  of  which  means  that  the  Japanese,  in  our 
present  state  of  knowledge  of  them,  are  like  other 
people. 

The  sequel  of  famine  is  cannibalism.  Not  at  all 
infrequent  and  incredible  are  the  stories  told  in  narra- 
tives of  fact  and  of  fiction,  of  the  behavior  of  human 
nature  and  its  necessities  when  reduced  to  its  lowest 
terms.  Whole  villages  were  deprived  of  human 
inhabitants,  the  roadsides  and  the  floors  of  the 
houses  being  covered  with  bones  and  skulls.  In  the 
cities,  the  high  prices  of  rice  and  food  caused  riots. 
Yet,  as  Dr.  Droppers  intimates,  while  epidemics 
have  but  a  minor  and  temporary  influence  in  dimin- 
ishing population,   the   effects  of  famine  are  quite 


t 


Deing 
m  th< 


THE  SELF-ISOLATED  HERMIT  NATION       267 

otherwise.  The  people  who  survive  an  epidemic  are 
probably  more  vigorous  than  ever,  while  after  famine, 
those  who  remain  are  weaker  than  before,  besides 
being   poorer.     After   epidemics,   also,    "wages   rise 

he  people  quickly  forget  their  former  disasters 
ifTlhc  prosperity  of  the  moment.  The  effects  of 
famine,  therefore,  are  far  more  lasting  than  those  of 
epidemics,  and  may  indeed,  as  they  probably  did 
in  Japan,  permanently  affect  the  character  of  the 
people."  In  a  word,  to  those  who  know  the  true 
history  of  the  middle  ages  in  Europe,  and  enjoy  the 
comparative  study  of  mankind,  it  is  plain  that 
Jaj)anese  human  nature  is  exactly  like  our  own  and 
that  of  our  ancestors. 

e  negative  character  of  the  Tokugawa  Govern- 

,  which  was  directly  opposed  to  all  progress  and 
development,  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  it  attempted 

provement,  but  strove  to  cure  evils  by  restraint, 
ptuary  laws  were  passed  with  what  was  irritating, 
and  as  it  seems  now  with  comical,  frecjuency.  Accord- 
the  proverb,  "Government-made  laws  last  three 
ays,"  and  custom  soon  forgets  old  prohibitions  in 
years  of  plenty,  though  the  poor  farmer  usually 
remained  in  the  slough. 

The  punishments  for  crime  were  also  factors  in 
keeping  down  the  population.  Five  varieties  of 
capital  punishment  were  known :  slow  decapitation 
with  a  bamboo  saw,  crucifixion,  exposure  of  the  head, 
burning  at  the  stake,  and  decapitation  with  a  sword. 
I  have  myself  repeatedly  seen  at  the  blood-pit  head- 


and  SiH 
nays. 


268  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

less  trunks  on  the  pillories,  heads  stuck  on  a  wad  of 
clay  or  nailed  in  place  with  strap  iron.  Natives  and 
foreigners  are  still  living  who  have  seen  the  taking 
of  life  in  the  name  of  law  by  means  of  fire  and  a 
bamboo  cross.  The  victims  on  the  latter  underwent 
a  double  crucifixion,  first  by  being  bound  tightly 
to  the  stock  and  cross-piece,  which  in  shape  resembled 
a  Roman  cross,  while  slow  transfixion  of  the  upper 
part  of  the  body  with  two  crossed  spears,  which 
avoided  vital  parts,  made  one  of  steel,  of  the  St. 
Andrew's  pattern.  Victims  sometimes  Hngered  during 
three  days. 

Population  was  also  materially  kept  down  to  the 
food  limit,  by  popular  opinion  and  custom.  Among 
the  lower  classes,  it  was  not  common  to  rear  all  the 
children  born,  especially  if  girls  came  too  frequently. 
Among  the  samurai,  many  men  did  not  marry  until 
after  thirty,  and  it  was  considered  a  social  disgrace 
to  raise  a  family  of  more  than  three  children.  Many 
of  the  well-to-do  farmers  and  merchants,  influenced 
like  the  samurai,  by  Confucian  ideas,  followed  their 
example.  While  there  was  hardly  in  the  whole 
country  a  hospital  in  our  sense  of  the  term,  there 
were  in  the  large  cities  physicians  famous  for  their 
skill  in  preventing  the  birth  of  living  children.  These 
kept  private  establishments  to  accommodate  calcu- 
lating patrons.  All  authorities  agree  that  the  sexual 
morality  in  the  large  cities  was  at  a  very  low  ebb  among 
all  classes,  while  luxury  and  effeminacy  prevailed 
among  people  higl^  in  birth  and  wealth.     The  proof 


THE  SELF-ISOLATED  HERMIT  NATION 


269 


^Inllmc 


of  physical  degeneration  among  the  men  is  clearly 
shown  in  the  miserable  failure  of  the  Bakufu's  attempt 
to  chastise  the  one  clan  of  Choshiu.  The  Yedo 
soldiers  were  no  match  for  the  hardy  clansmen. 
Hokusai's  pencil  has  satirized  the  gourmands  who 
were  too  fat  for  their  armor.  Japan,  degenerate  and 
officially  imbecile,  seemed  a  prey  to  the  conqueror. 
The  terrific  earnestness  of  purpose  of  the  patriots  ^l. 
of  fVio^\T^>iji  r^rg  to  make  their  people  the  healthiest 
in  the  world,  is  the  reaction  against  the  bad  govern- 
ment and  low  morals  of  ''the  last  brilliant  period 
of   feudalism    before   its   fall."     Except   for   Millard 

ore,  Perry,  and  Harris,  and  the  appearance  of 

nited  States  in  Asia,  early  in  the  era  of  steam 

navigation,  who  knows  whether  Japan  would  have 

tained  her  sovereignty? 

,e  sweeping  away  of  the  feudal  system  and  with 

arly  all  the  old  divisive  influences  which  cut 
population  and  paralyzed  national  energy,  the 
recreation  of  monarchy,  and  more  especially  the 
economic  unification  of  the  empire,  made  a  new  world 
for  all  classes  and  conditions  of  men.  The  introduc- 
tion of  modern  ideas,  the  opening  of  all  doors  of 
opportunity,  the  creation  of  new  lines  of  achievement 
for  the  commoners,  thus  greatly  enriching  life  and 
making  it  worth  living,  wrought  a  change  that 
seemed  magical.  Population  began  to  increase  at 
a  rate  unknown  before.  In  1872  a  census  was  made 
which  gave  33,110,555  souls.  The  steady  enlarge- 
ment is  shown  in  the  figures  for  1903  (in  which  those 


^ 


270  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

of  Formosa  are  not  included),  which  are  46,732,841. 
There  are  no  fewer  than  50,000,000  souls  in  the 
Mikado's  Empire,  of  1907. 

Not  less  wonderful  is  the  slow  but  sure  rise  of  the 
people  to  the  dignities  and  honors  which  were  of  old 
the  monopoly  of  the  nobles  and  samurai.  From 
1895  to  1904,  of  those  who  passed  examination  for 
entrance  to  the  diplomatic  corps,  three  were  nobles, 
nineteen  samurai,  and  thirty-one  commoners.  One- 
half  of  the  army  officers,  in  1907,  had  risen  from  the 
people,  and  of  the  graduates  of  the  Imperial  Univer- 
sity in  recent  years  a  majority  are  of  the  heimin 
class ;  that  is,  the  common  people  who  make  the  sub- 
stance of  the  nation.  ''The  people  are  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Empire." 


CHAPTER  XIX 

BUSHIDO    IN    RFVf  T.\TTo\T 

apanese,  considered  as  a  community  of  fifty 
million  people,  are  still,  in  one  sense,  in  a  low  state  of 
evolution.  A  nation  of  five  million  hi^dily  cultivated 
{)eople  dwells  within  a  nation  of  forty-five  millions  of 
people,  far  less  cultivated,  but  nine  times  in  number. 
Proofs  of  this  are  seen  in  the  esoteric  limitations 
that  have  been  and  are  still  placed  upon  many  of 
th(?ir  richest  inheritances.  Just  as  the  seventeenth- 
century  Frenchmen,  for  polemic  purposes,  set  forth 
the  Chinese  as  a  nation  of  savants,  so  there  are  many 

("dentals  who  imagine  that  the  Japanese  millions 
intellectually   homogeneous,   and   nearly   all   in 
the  same  grade  of  culture. 

is  supposed,  for  example,  tiiat  all  are  fairly  well 
d  in  Bushido,  ju-jutsu,  art,  learning,  eticjuette, 
,  etc.  Occidental  contempt  or  ignorance  has 
given  way  to  the  unbridled  license  of  flattery  and 
exaggeration  of  impressionists.  In  a  library  of  books, 
written  by  tourists,  or  men  blind  by  nature  or  bribes, 
the  Jai)anese  are  uncritically  appraised  out  of  all 
re(?ognition  by  those  who  know  them  by  long  famil- 
iarity.    As  a  foil,  these  native  paragons  are  set  in 

271 


e  sa: 


272  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

contrast  to  the  foreigners  in  the  seaports,  who  are 
crass  materiahstS;  hired  converters,  money  grabbers, 
or  stoHd  phihstines.  Against  the  imaginary  Nippon, 
which  exists  only  in  the  brain  of  dreamers,  and  such 
Japanese  as  impressionists  and  sycophants  have 
set  before  us,  there  is  danger  of  terrific  and  altogether 
unjust  reaction.  Compare  with  his  earlier  writings 
on  Japan,  Lafcadio  Hearn's  latest  book  —  written 
after  he  had  undergone  profound  mental  changes  of 
opinion  on  age-old  questions  —  in  which  he  pictures 
the  evolution  of  the  family  in  Japan  as  in  the  Homeric 
stage,  delaying  its  development  and  putting  modern 
varnish  and  veneer  of  war  and  machinery,  without 
honest  ethical  substance  below. 

In  law,  religion,  the  fine  arts,  the  trades,  there  have 
been  secrecy  and  mystery.  Never  has  there  been  in 
Japan  a  '^ republic"  of  letters  or  art,  since  the  days 
when  China's  elephantine  system  of  bureaucracy 
was  borrowed  by  tiny  Japan.  Throughout  Japanese 
history  and  literature,  as  the  abundant  vocabulary 
embedded  in  the  language  shows,  secrecy  and  ex- 
clusiveness  have  played  an  enormous  part.  Probably 
this  is  the  reason  why,  in  matters  of  religion,  philoso- 
phy, and  literary  criticism,  there  seems  to  be  so  much 
that  is  puerile,  whimsical,  and  childish  in  the  Japanese, 
why  insular,  parochial,  and  ludicrous  notions  concern- 
ing the  merits  of  their  own  poets,  verse  writers,  dra- 
matists, and  writers  are  seriously  held  by  native 
Chauvinists ;  and  last,  but  not  least,  why  it  is  so  hard 
for  Western  nations  to  take  these  people  seriously. 


BUSHIDO   IN  REVELATIOxN  273 

These  are  also  the  penalties  which  the  natives  of 
Nippon  have  to  pay  for  their  notions  about  candor. 
Truth-telling  for  its  own  sake  is  looked  upon  as  some 
American  politicians  have  regarded  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments —  as  something  to  be  played  with,  as 
very  ''Sunday-schoolish."  The  weakness  of  Japanese 
daily  life  is  seen  in  the  way  the  Japanese  regard  the 
teUing  of  a  H( — unpardonai)l('  if  the  end  in  view 
be  a  bad  one,  but  blameless  if  the  purpose  of  the  lie 
was  a  good  one.  It  is  no  wonder  that  Christianity 
is  by  so  many  Japanese  considered  quite  impracticable. 
Yet  some  of  the  very  best  minds,  including  Japanese 
m(!n  of  giri  (righteousness),  believe  all  the  more  in 
''The  Jesus  religion,"  because  of  the  enemies  it  makes.  ^^J^~ 
^"^e  history  of  the  Knightly  Code,  or  Path  of  the 

urai,  called  Bushido,  is  in  point.     On  its  idealized 
sklc  it  seems  unicjuely  noble.     If    th(»  samurai  had 

ys  Hved  up  to  his  professions  and  had  society 
shaped  to  such  ideals,  Japan  would  indeed  have 
been  an  eartlily  Eden.  Here  would  have  existed  an 
island,  free  from  internal  war,  inst(^ad  of  being,  as  its 
history  shows  it  to  have  been,  a  realm  with  ages  of 

d-soaked  battle-fields  and  -bloody  struggles,  during 
the  Imperial  capital  was  burned  and  sacked 
repeatedly.  Imperial  princes  assassinated,  and  mikados 
killed,  while  the  mass  of  the  people  were  left  in  misery 
and  wretchedness,  with  human  life  held  at  a  low 
price. 

et  at  this  point  of  national  vanity,  as  in  perhaps 
other  which  concerns  human  nature,  the  Japan- 


^ 


274  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

ese  are  wonderfully  like  ourselves.  They  idealize 
the  past,  their  human  memories  generally  forgetting 
or  softening  into  oblivion  the  ugly  and  unpleasant. 
No  such  Japan  ever  existed,  as  is  set  forth  by  certain 
native  and  foreign  writers  of  the  idealizing  school, 
who  write  as  facts  what  are  feelings,  and  who  give  us 
a  transfiguration  of  what  has  passed  away,  and  which 
they  never  saw.  Much  of  Japanese  history  and 
retrospective  writing  reminds  one  of  the  name  of  a 
Dutch  social  club  seen  in  one  of  the  Holland  towns  — 
''Society  for  the  Abolition  of  Things  Disagreeable." 
We,  too,  read  Walter  Scott  for  the  chivalry  and 
splendor  of  the  middle  ages,  but  forget  the  plague, 
pestilence,  and  famine,  the  filth,  dirt,  cruelty,  disease, 
and  ignorance  of  mediaeval  times,  for  these  are  veiled 
in  the  mist  of  romance.  Do  not  our  artists,  when 
they  paint  the  picture  of  our  forefathers'  history, 
follow  the  ''Angel"  instead  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
legend?  In  looking  at  Hermann  returning  home 
from  his  victory  over  the  Romans,  or  at  his  wife 
Thusnelda  and  her  women  in  the  triumph  of  Germani- 
cus  at  Rome,  Piloty  puts  on  the  canvas  only  men  of 
god-like  physique  and  women  of  surpassing  beauty 
and  grace.  The  atmosphere  of  the  Munich  school  of 
art,  for  example,  in  thus  picturing  the  past,  is  one 
replete  with  halos.  Despite  the  bears'  skulls  on  the 
poles  or  the  skins  of  beasts  wrapped  round  the 
warriors'  loins,  we  have  not  savage  men  and  women, 
but  glorified  ancestors.  In  a  word,  we,  like  the 
Japanese,  set  the  past  in  transfiguration.    We  both 


BUSHIDO   IN   REVELATION  275 

idealize  and  glorify  those  whose  blood  flows  in  our 
veins.    Thus  we  flatter  ourselves. 

Bushido  was  the  growth  of  ages  of  war.  Its  un- 
written rules  were  like  the  constitution  of  a  secret 
society  which  is  good  for  those  inside,  who  held  their 
secrets  as  mystery  to  be  kept  from  the  exoterics. 
To  the  people,  Bushido,  like  the  codes  of  law  by 
which  they  were  governed,  was  something  sacredly 
guarded  as  a  secret  from  the  conmion  man.  Soko 
Yamaga,  born  in  Aidzu  in  1()22,  became  the  literary 
cxjjonent  of  the  code,  and  his  precepts  and  instruc- 
tions have  been  summed  up  by  Rev.  J.  T.  Imai  in 
his  marrowy  little  book,  "  Bushido  in  the  Past  and 
Present."  As  Soko  was  the  teacher  of  Oishi  Kurano- 
suke,  the  leader  of  the  Forty-seven  Ronins,  ''we 
rightly  infer  that  to  Soko's  influence  was  due  the 
success  of  the  Ronins'  adventurous  and  heroic 
action."  All  the  world  of  Japan  was  given  a  visible 
object  lesson,  of  what  Busliido  was,  in  the  storming 
of  the  enemy's  mansion,  the  unopposed  march  of  the 
po]:)ular  and  applauded  murderers  through  the  streets 
of  Yedo,  bearing  the  gory  head,  the  washing  of  the 
trophy,  the  reverent  placing  of  the  head  of  Kira  on 
their  Lord  Asano's  tomb,  the  delivery  of  themselves 
to  the  authorities,  and  the  voluntary  act  of  hara-kiri 
by  the  forty-seven  survivors.  This  historic  episode 
was  soon  embalmed  in  literature  and  art  for  all 
generations. 

Until  the  seventeenth  century  Bushido  could  be 
known  only  in  a  vague,  far-off,  and  dreamlike  way 


276  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

by  the  masses.  During  the  long  Yedo  peace  it  came 
to  the  people  like  a  revelation  from  the  theatrical 
stage,  and  from  the  novel,  which  is  a  pocket  theatre  in 
itself.  Thenceforward  the  deeds  of  a  samurai  became 
the  ideals  of  the  commoners,  who  awaited  their  oppor- 
tunity to  create  heroes  also.  This  came  sometimes 
in  the  form  of  the  people's  champions,  the  unarmed 
but  valiant  Otoko-dashi,  or  Bully  Boys,  of  whom  and 
of  other  characters  peculiar  to  the  Yedo  era  we  read 
in  Mitford's  '^ Tales  of  Old  Japan."  The  drama,  the 
fiction  of  Bakin  (1767-1848),  and  the  art  of  Hokusai, 
which  was  possible  in  Tokugawa  days,  invaded  the 
domain  of  the  esoteric  and  raised  the  curtain  of 
mystery  for  the  people.  Popular,  thrilling  tragedy 
was  made  the  exponent  of  Bushido  to  the  people. 
In  the  seventy-four  out  of  the  ninety-seven  plays  of 
Chikamatsu  (1653-1724),  Japan's  greatest  dramatic 
composer,  and  in  the  pieces  of  other  historical  drama- 
tists, the  dialogue  and  action,  discussion  and  im- 
personation, set  against  the  background  of  appro- 
priate costume  and  scenery,  handled  almost  every 
phase  of  duty  in  the  manifold  relations  of  life.  The 
stage  was  made  an  ethical  school  for  the  illustration 
of  giri;  that  is,  righteousness,  or  the  right  thing  to  be 
done  in  accordance  with  reason.  Akin  to  the  work 
of  the  schoolmen  in  Europe,  in  kneading  the  funda- 
mentals and  commonplaces  of  Christianity  into  the 
minds  and  speech  of  our  mediaeval  ancestors,  was 
this  work  of  the  dramatists,  artists,  and  writers  of 
the  Tokugawa  era. 


y 


i  BUSHIDO   IN   REVELATION  277 

The  masses  began  to  enjoy  in  other  domains  of 
thought  what  heretofore  had  been  only  the  property 
of  the  cultured  few.  By  his  scholarship,  Motoori 
(1730-1801)  knocked  to  flinders  the  secret  idols,  the 
monopolized  interpretations  of  scholastics  and  nobles. 
The  critical  history  of  Rai  Sanyo  (1780-1832)  made 
tyrants  tremble.  It  would  take  a  long  catalogue  to 
make  known  even  the  names  of  the  morning-stars 
that  heralded  the  dawn  of  the  Meiji  sjjlondor  of  our 
day.  In  art,  anatomy,  geography,  other  revelations 
were  made,  which  reduced  the  base  fabric  of  esoteric 
tradition  to  rubbish  and  ushered  in  the  modern  world. 
Yet  without  these  lovers  of  truth,  deemed  heretics 
and  rebels,  Japan  would  never  have  become  a  "self- 
reformed  hermit  nation." 

So,  also,  with  that  system  of  physical  culture  and 
personal  defence,  called  ju-jutsu  (there  is  no  such 
word  as  jitsu  ap})lied  to  physical  exercise  in  the 
Japanese  language,  and  ju-jutsu  is  but  one  of  many 
jutsu,  or  arts),  whose  merits  have  been  alternately  so 
frightfully  exaggerated  and  so  vilely  misrepresented. 
The  derivation  of  the  word,  set  in  contrast  with  the 
popular  term  for  the  art,  reveals  the  situation  as  it 
existed  for  centuries.  Ju-jutsu  among  the  people 
meant  secrecy  and  trickery,  but  the  root-idea  is  the 
gentle,  as  opposed  to  the  rough  art,  which  required 
the  use  of  weapons.  Hepburn  defines  ju-jutsu  as  the 
art  of  wrestling  or  throwing  others  by  sleight.  The 
native  synonym,  yawara,  means  something  done  not 
in  fair  play,  though  the  original  idea,  containing  no 


278  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

such  suggestion,  is  to  soften,  to  mollify.  Brinkley 
gives  the  best  definition  of  ju-jutsu,  as  '^a  kind  of 
wrestling,  in  which  dexterity  or  trick  plays  a  more 
important  part  than  physical  strength,"  while,  again, 
for  yawara,  he  gives  the  definition  'Ho  do  anything 
by  sleight,  not  by  fair  means." 

This  art  of  ju-jutsu,  pronounced  ju-jutsu,  was  vir- 
tually unknown  to  the  people  at  large,  being  confined 
to  samurai  or  warriors.  However,  in  the  reconstruc- 
tion of  society  from  1868  onward,  ju-jutsu  has  been 
taught  regularly  to  policemen,  and  in  the  army  and 
navy,  and  is  now  an  art  open  to  all.  In  like  manner, 
the  army  and  navy  are  the  only  real  preservers  of 
Bushido,  which  virtually  died  in  its  old  form  with  feu- 
dalism; for  Bushido  cannot  fit  itself  into  the  modern 
framework  of  society,  which  rests  upon  law  and  upon 
justice  to  all  classes.  Bushido  is  opposed  ahke  to  su- 
preme loyalty  to  the  Emperor  and  to  public  law  and 
national  ideals.  Like  our  own  mediaeval  knighthood, 
it  can  flourish  only  under  a  temporary  release  from  the 
usual  conditions  of  human  brotherhood,  as  in  war. 

In  other  words,  outside  of  science  and  politics, 
new  revelations  were  made  to  the  people,  who  entered 
into  enjoyments  and  privileges  not  previously  theirs. 
Notably  was  this  the  case  with  music.  The  old  koto 
and  the  new  samisen  came  into  use  throughout  the 
empire,  and  compositions  adapted  to  popular  taste 
became  fashionable  being  quickly  carried  from  Yedo  to 
the  provinces.  The  diamios'  processions  continually 
on  the  high  roads  were  like  shuttles  weaving  into  the 


BUSHIDO  IN   REVELATION  279 

arp  a  new  pattern  of  national  life.  The  capital 
e  model  and  the  castle  cities  measurably  made 
copfes.  The  circulating  libraries  and  serial  pubhca- 
tions,  printed  on  bamboo  and  mulberry  paper  — 
literature  and  avoirdupois  being  very  light  —  were 
transported  on  man-back  or  pack-horse.  The  last 
new  novel,  fashion-plate,  street  song,  colored  print, 
or  music  score  was  quickly  distributed  throughout  the 
land.  The  picture  of  life  on  the  high-roads  as  given 
by  the  pedestrian  and  funny  fellow  Jippensha  Ikku 
(1775-1831)  in  the  Tokaido  Hizakurige  (literally 
leg  hair,  or  "shank's  mare,"  on  the  Eastern  Sea  Road) 
is  pronounced  by  Chamberlain  ''the  cleverest  outcome 
of_the  Jai)anese  pen,"  with  which  verdict,  having 
it,  we  coincide.  The  fifty-three  stations,  or 
s,  on  this  famous  road,  long  formed  a  favorite 
theme  of  popular  artists. 

We  may  now  glance  at  Japan's  important  musical 
instruments,  being  enabled  to  attain  accuracy  by 
availing  ourselves  of  Mr.  Piggott's  paper  before  the 
Asiatic  Society.  The  koto,  with  which  word  the 
Ja])anese  translate  our  ''piano,"  is  of  first  importance, 
nearly  all  of  the  national  music  having  been  composed 
for  it  during  the  two  hundred  years  or  more  that  it 
has  been  in  popular  vogue.  The  koto,  brought  to 
Nippon  with  the  rest  of  the  Chinese  orchestra,  in 
th(3  seventh  century,  remained  the  fashionable 
instrument  of  the  Court  for  over  a  thousand  years, 
but  was  used  for  Chinese  music  alone.  The  purely 
national  music  was  left  to  the  Yamato  koto,  the 


in 

I 


280  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

Satsuma  biwa,  and  other  instruments  which  had 
gradually  developed  in  Japan. 

Yatsuhashi  was  the  inventor  of  the  late  form  of  the 
koto  and  the  father  of  modern  music  in  Japan.  He 
thought  that  the  ancient  solemn  music  might  give 
place  occasionally  to  something  lighter  and  more 
melodious,  and  thus  a  wider  audience  be  obtained 
among  the  people.  His  compositions,  called  kumi, 
are  the  classical  standards  of  the  present  day. 

To  see  how  allied  to  deep  emotion  and  how  true  an 
expression  of  what  Japanese  feel  is  their  music,  we 
have  but  to  note  the  themes  chosen  by  Yatsuhashi. 
These  he  took  from  the  famous  novels,  the  Ise  and 
Genji  Monogatari  (1004),  which  many  read  and  num- 
bers knew  by  heart.  He  composed  thirteen  pieces, 
one  for  each  string  of  the  koto,  or  one  for  the  twelve 
months,  with  one  over  for  the  leap  month.  His  first 
piece  was  produced  in  1649.  Within  a  very  short 
time  the  grace  of  the  new  music  appealed  to  the 
popular  taste,  and  many  composers  of  music  arose. 
The  kumi  is  invariably  accompanied  by  the  voice. 
On  the  contrary,  bugaku,  which  was  long  cultivated 
in  Nara  and  in  old  Kioto,  is,  as  the  composition  of  the 
word  shows,  dance  music.  It  is  still  played  on  great 
festal  occasions,  by  an  hereditary  company  of  musi- 
cians. Probably  the  best  appreciative  description  of 
old  Japanese  music  accompanied  by  pose  and  motion 
of  superbly  costumed  dancers,  in  the  Imperial  palace, 
is  to  be  found  in  Mrs.  Eraser's  ''Letters  from  Japan." 

The  Yamato-koto,  called  also  the  Wa-gon,  is  claimed 


BUSHIDO   IX   REVELATION 


281 


to  be  a  purely  national  instrument  and  an  evolution 
from  the  six  long  bows  tied  side  by  side,  in  front  of 
the  cave  in  Uzume's  day.  Its  sounding-board  is 
cut  at  one  end  into  five  long  notches,  the  six  strings 
being  attached  to  the  six  *'bow"  projections  by  thick 
coarse  cords.  The  bridges  are  made  of  untrimmed 
joints  of  maple  twigs,  and  the  idea  of  the  original 
roughness  of  the  instrument  is  preserved  in  the  claim 
that  it  ought  not  to  have  a  case  of  any  sort.  Crude 
in  construction,  its  tone  is  very  sweet,  and  under  the 
hand  of  a  master  it  is  astonishingly  effective.  The 
six  strings  are  tuned  in  the  following  order:  D,  F,  A, 
C,  G,  C,  —  the  major  triad  of  the  tonic  and  the  minor 
triad  of  the  second  of  the  diatonic  scale  of  C  major; 

teresting   and    harmonious   combination,    with 

1  Western  musicians  are  perfectly  familiar. 

Japan  the  geisha  (literally,  artist)  and  the  sami- 

em  as  naturally  associated  as  are  cup  and  saucer. 

instrument  is  the  leading  one  also  with  the 
beggar  women,  the  theatre,  and  in  later  forms  of  the 
■dance.  It  was  introduced  from  the  Riu  Kiu 
slands  about  1500,  or,  as  some  say,  along  with  the 
m<2gquito    net,    from    Manila  in  1700.     In    its   two- 

ed  form,  it  probably  came  originally  from 
ma,  when  its  body  was  covered  with  snake-skin, 

h  the  modern  instrument  has  three  strings  and 
vered  with  catskin,  for  which  reason  the  geisha 
are^often  alluded  to  as  "cats."  The  name  samsen, 
meaning  three  strings,  was  changed  to  samisen,  or 
three  tasteful  strings.     Besides  the  three  standard 


^^uhina 


i^ 


282  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

tunings,  there  are  two  special  tunings  used  only 
for  comic  music.  The  kokyu,  or  Japanese  fiddle,  is 
said  to  have  been  brought  from  India,  through  China 
and  the  Riu  Kiu  islands. 

Very  interesting  is  the  sho,  or  mouth  organ,  com- 
posed of  a  compact  bundle  of  seventeen  thin  bamboo 
reeds  fixed  into  a  circular  lacquered  wind-chamber 
of  cherry  wood  or  hard  pine.  The  air  passes  in  a 
channel  round  the  central  support,  and  it  is  fitted  with 
a  silver  mouthpiece.  From  this  instrument,  invented 
in  China,  Europeans  got  the  idea  of  the  reed  organ. 
There  is  a  great  variety  in  the  sho  used  at  different 
periods. 

The  function  of  the  drum  in  the  Japanese  orchestra 
was  to  mark  and  emphasize  the  rh3rthm  of  the  dance. 
To  famous  musicians  of  the  drum,  silken  cords  of 
different  colors  were  awarded  as  prizes,  denoting  their 
grade,  the  ordinary  being  orange-red,  the  next  blue, 
the  highest  lilac. 

Some  knowledge  of  the  instruments  in  the  Japanese 
orchestra  enables  one  to  appreciate  the  native  pic- 
torial art,  book  illustrations,  ivory  netsuke,  bronzes, 
and  lacquers,  which  set  forth  popular  enjoyments. 
Gongs,  which  were  invented  in  China  after  the  time 
of  Confucius,  and  thence  imported,  were  used  in 
Japan  till  brass  instruments  were  made  for  the  words 
of  command.  There  is  an  enormous  variety  in  Japan- 
ese gongs,  from  the  gilt  nishoko,  set  in  an  elaborate 
framework  representing  clouds  and  flames,  and 
carried  by  two  men  on  a  black  lacquer  pole,  down  to 


BUSHIDO  IN  REVELATION  283 

tiny  affairs  suitable  for  Tom  Thumb.  Most  of  the 
multiform  gongs  have  names  which  are  telltale  of 
their  origin  and  use,  whether  by  soldiers,  watchmen, 
regulators  of  the  dance,  time-beaters,  or  markers  for 
prayers  and  readings  of  the  Buddhist  scriptures. 

At  the  theatre  two  hardwood  clappers  empha- 
size both  conclusion  and  confusion.  Out-doors, 
with  the  same  sort  of  musical  timber,  the  jugglers 
advertise  their  performance  and  the  night  watchmen 
in  the  streets  let  j)eoj)le  know  that  they  are  awake  and 
attending  to  business.  At  the  eaves  of  the  houses 
we  find  the/;/rm,  or  wind  bell,  with  broad,  flat  clappers 
g  below  the  body  of  the  bell,  and  which  catches 
ind.  One  of  Bakin's  one  hundred  and  forty-two 
stories,  before  he  was  silenced  by  the  Yedo  censors, 
titled  ''The  Golden  Wind  Bell."  In  our  days 
are  made  of  glass,  with  flat  tongues  of  the  same 
material. 

£e  brass  bugle,  now  used  in  camp  and  for  drill, 
lually  called  "the  foreigners'  flute,"  and  has 
totally  displaced  the  conch  shell  of  old  warfare. 
Another  bugle,  now  made  of  copper,  was  formerly 
made  of  wood.  The  proverb  or  modern  caricature 
equivalent  to  our  '' beating  the  big  drum,"  or  ''telling 
a  whopper,"  is  in  Japanese,  "blowing  a  conch."  The 
Mokkin  is  made  of  thirteen  wooden  tablets  in  the 
form  of  a  harmonicon  and  played  with  two  sticks. 

The  repertoire  of  popular  music,  composed  to  suit 
these  various  instruments,  made  it  possible  for  all 
classes  to  soothe  and  cheer  their  hours  of  leisure  and 


^, 


284  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

to  vary  the  grayness  of  common  life  with  many  hours 
of  enjoyment.  To  her  musicians,  no  less  than  to  her 
lawgivers,  soldiers,  and  artists  with  brush  and  burin, 
Japan  owes  a  debt  of  gratitude.  Not  least  among  the 
factors  in  the  evolution  of  the  nation  was  music. 
The  ''heavenly  maid"  in  Japan  is  not  young  in  years, 
but,  Hke  Yamato  Damashii,  has  the  promise  of  life 
unto  life. 


CHAPTER  XX 


THE    NATIVE    INTELLECT    FERTILIZED 


eientl: 


So  far  from  Japan  being  hormotically  sealed  up  from 
the  world  during  the  long  peace  (IGlo-lSOS),  there 
was  no  period  in  her  history  when  intellectual  forces 
from  without  were  more  radical  or  more  widely 
eminated.  It  was  not  the  time  of  the  phenomena 
e  mustard  seed,  but  of  the  leaven.  In  the 
eignth  century  the  Court :  in  mediiT^val  times  the 
learned  priests  in  the  monastery ;  in  the  Tokugawa 
era  it  was  elect  spirits  throughout  the  nation  that  were 
affected.  Japan  as  an  intellectual  debtor  is  again 
deeply  obligated  to  the  old  Treasure  Land,  China, 
and  in  wholly  new  ideas  and  science  the  Dutch  repub- 
her  creditor.  From  first  to  last,  no  people 
borrowed  more  from  both  East  and  West 
than  the  Japanese. 

mitsu  (1623-1648),  though  third  in  succession, 
a  second  lyeyasu.  Under  his  rule,  Holland  and 
C]iina  were  brought  into  closer  relations  with  the 
■litage  in  the  Pacific,  so  that  never  for  a  decade 
were  the  blossoms  of  the  Japanese  intellect  left 
unfertilized  by  the  busy  bees  flying  steadily  from  the 
Dutch  and  Chinese  gardens.     The  Holland  merchants, 

286 


than 


286  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

no  better  and  no  worse  than  the  traders  of  their  times, 
were  given  the  monopoly  of  European  traffic.  They 
were  located,  or  imprisoned,  on  the  artificial  Front 
Island,  or  Deshima,  which  was  connected  by  a  single 
bridge  with  Nagasaki.  Despite  the  severe  restrictions 
of  vigilant  governors  and  a  cordon  of  spies,  Deshima 
became  a  centre  of  light  and  science,  shedding  its 
beams  afar,  and  ever  the  goal  of  pilgrims  with  the 
inquiring  spirit.  Religion  and  politics  were  banned, 
but  through  the  permitted  filter  of  medical  knowledge 
dripped  priceless  riches  for  the  native  scholars.  The 
intensely  human  Japanese  soon  learned  the  trick  of 
adopting  the  profession  of  physician  in  order  to  enter 
the  gateways  of  other  sciences.  They  were  ever 
eager  to  extract  the  truth  from  the  ore  itself,  rather 
than  to  receive  the  gold  in  coin,  even  though  it  were 
stamped  in  Yedo  as  official  and  orthodox.  In  time, 
by  the  furtive  study  of  the  language,  the  surreptitious 
possession  of  Dutch  books,  and  by  incredible  toil 
of  brain  and  pen,  there  was  formed  in  Japan  that 
body  of  opinion  held  by  ''the  Dutch  students," 
which  made  Perry's  work  easy.  By  the  thinking 
assembly  from  within,  far  more  than  by  Perry's 
Columbiads,  was  the  Sun-goddess  lured  out  of  her 
cave.  In  truth,  the  inside  pressure  upon  the  Bakufu 
had  by  1853  reached  the  danger  point.  The  rivet 
heads  of  the  machine  were  just  ready  to  fly.  Millard 
Fillmore  saved  not  only  the  North  and  the  South, 
but  also  Japan,  from  political  explosion  and  civil  war. 
The  flowering  of  the  nation,  the  blooming  of  Japan's 


THE  NATIVE  INTELLECT  FERTILIZED        287 

century  aloe,  was  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  true 
evolution.  Not  more  wonderful  have  been  the 
events  of  the  twentieth  century  than  those  in  the 
(lays  of  the  Tokugawa  repression.  The  Japanese 
intellect,  ever  fertile,  responded  to  the  Dutchmen's 
talk  and  to  the  pictures  and  texts  of  their  scientific 
hooks.  There  are  some  who  date  the  modern  era  of 
science  from  that  scene  in  1771,  when  the  cadaver 
of  O-cha  Baba  (Mother  Green  Tea)  was  utilized  in  the 
int(!rest  of  truth.  On  the  execution  ground  outside 
of  Yedo  (Kotsu  ga  hara,  or  Boneyard)  Sugita  Gem- 
paku,  a  native  doctor,  stood,  holding  in  his  hand  a 
Dutch  book  of  anatomy  with  woodcut  pictures  in  it. 
He  compared  the  reality  visible  in  the  dissected  female 
corpse  with  the  European  representation  and  with 
what  had  been  taught  him  as  laifl  down  in  Chinese 
tradition.  The  old  Eta  executioner,  unlettered  but 
skilful  and  practical  in  anatomy,  helped  the  erudite 
physician  to  make  thrilling  discoveries  from  the 
decapitated  criminal.  \\'hat  was  fact,  and  what 
was  fancy,  in  the  Chinese  standard  treatises,  were 
henceforth  exposed.  Gempaku's  book,  ''New  Work 
on  Anatomy,"  based  on  and  translated  from  John 
Adams  Kuruman's  Tafel  Anatomica,  created  a  new 
era  in  Nippon. 

In  1644  a  Dutch  doctor  came  to  Yedo  and  spent 
se^'eral  years  in  the  shogunal  city  and  taught  Euro- 
pean science.  Dutch  physicians  at  Deshima  were 
generously  free  with  their  knowledge.  The  scientific 
men,  Kempfer  (1051-1716),  A^on  Siebold  (1796-1866), 


288  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

to  whose  memory  no  fewer  than  five  memorial  stones 
have  been  reared  on  Japanese  soil,  and  others  fed  the 
sacred  flame  until  it  would  almost  seem  as  if  Japan's 
modern  enlightenment  was  the  work  of  physicians. 
On  the  twentieth  of  September,  1860,  Dr.  Pompe 
van  Merdervoort,  at  Nagasaki,  established  the  first 
hospital  under  Government  auspices  and  taught 
anatomy  by  dissection. 

Throughout  the  Empire,  the  medical  practitioners 
were  centres  of  light  and  new  ideas.  Most  of  the 
men  of  the  new  heroic  age,  beginning  in  1853,  were 
the  sons  and  grandsons  of  those  whose  eyes  had  been 
opened  at  Nagasaki.  Echizen's  doctors,  Hajimoto 
Sanai  and  Kasahara,  with  Yokoi  Heishiro  the 
reformer,  and  Shungaku  the  daimio,  created  a  senti- 
ment that  compelled  vaccination  and  Dutch  medical 
practice  even  in  the  forties.  With  dispensary  and 
medical  schools,  and  anatomical  models  of  the  latest 
and  best  style  in  the  city  of  Fukui  of  the  sixties, 
Echizen  may  have  led  all  the  feudal  fiefs  in  science, 
but  there  were  other  provinces  not  far  behind. 
Besides  fertilizing,  during  two  and  a  half  centuries, 
the  mind  of  JapaA,  the  Dutch  kept  up  trade  even  when 
profits  failed,  taught  the  Japanese  modern  machinery 
and  motors,  artillery,  tactics,  and  gunnery,  educated 
their  pioneer  naval  officers,  and  built  for  them  the 
first  ships  of  war,  doing  for  Japan  through  a  far 
longer  period  what  they  had  already  done  for  Russia 
under  Peter  the  Great.  In  diplomacy,  step  by  step, 
they  prepared  the  way  for  Perry,  as  Dr.  Nitobe  has 


THE  NATIVE  INTELLECT  FERTILIZED 


289 


shown  ill  (lotail,  in  his  "History  of  the  Intercourse 
between  the  United  States  and  Japan.' 

Another  much  misunderstood  character,  in  the  twi- 
Hght  of  modern  Japan,  was  the  Ronin  scholar.  It 
is  true  that  the  armed  but  masterless  gentleman,  the 
free  lance,  and  unsalaried  samurai,  was  often  a  terror 
to  the  unarmed  conunon  folks  and  lived  by  rapine. 
In  times  of  political  disturbance  he  was  the  assassin 
ever  ready  to  redden  his  blade,  often  indeed  under 
the  stress  of  unselfish  conviction,  yet  again  under  pay 
and  with  prospects  of  personal  advantage.  It  is  not 
on  this  type  of  man  we  need  waste  any  praises.  The 
Ronin  of  this  sort  lives  in  the  flashy  novels  and  on  the 
e,  both  in  popular  hatred  and  admiration.     Even 

did  not  (He  ''in  a  dog's  place,"  with  his  head 
on,  ne  was  in  the  vulgar  view  a  hero  and  his  tomb  was 

ded  with  flowers  or  hung  with  fluttering  stanzas 

tic  praise.  Even  to-day  the  cabinet  ministers 
justly  fear  such  a  character  not  yet  extinct.  The 
Ronin's  successor  is  the  f^oshi,  and  the  fire-eater  who, 
having  little  to  lose,  is  anxious  to  get  up  war.     The 

r  of  his  Malay  ancestors,  he  stands  ever  ready 
amuck. 

no  more  than  the  Japanese  or  American  people, 

ihe  Ronin  to  be  judged  en  masse.     We  must  dis- 

mminate  and   note   incHviduals.     Over  against  the 

P  salary-drawing,  self-satisfied  samurai,  basking 
lord's  favor,  shutting  his  eyes  from  truth,  and 
armoring    his    conscience    against    qualms,    a    hide- 
d  conservative,  is  sot  tlie  no])le  Ronin  scholar, 


^stage 


;tlv 


having 

i 


290  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

artist,  and,  though  outside  of  official  approval,  the 
doer  of  righteous  acts.  As  poor  and  as  honorable  as 
the  lens-grinding  gentleman,  thinker,  and  scholar, 
Spinoza,  were  these  lean  and  hungry  men,  who  began 
for  Japan  her  better  times.  Without  them,  the  great 
awakening  books,  that  came  as  trumpet  calls,  could 
not  have  been  penned.  Had  these  glorious  heretics 
kept  silence,  the  orthodox  philosophy  of  Yedo,  with 
its  enginery  of  prison  and  torture,  might  have  made  it 
impossible  for  Japan  ever  to  produce  an  Okubo,  an 
Ito,  a  Togo,  a  Kuroki,  or  an  Oyama.  Could  the 
rulers  have  bribed  into  silence  the  outspoken  patriot, 
or  the  censors  have  stopped  his  thinking,  we  should 
have  had  no  New  Japan.  Could  the  torturers,  with 
their  rack  and  bone-crushing  apparatus  have  wholly 
suppressed  the  writings  of  the  Ronin  scholars,  Japan 
would  have  been  to-day  no  better  than  Russia  in 
freedom  of  thought  and  act.  True,  indeed,  that  the 
artist  who  imitated  the  Dutch  style  was  officially 
ordered  to  commit  seppuku,  and  he  did.  The  engineer 
who  made  a  coastline  map  of  Dai  Nippon  was  arrested 
and  never  got  out  of  prison  alive.  Such  men  as 
Takeno  (1804-1850)  and  Watanabe  (1793-1841) 
plunged  their  dirks  into  their  own  bodies  in  order  to 
cheat  the  spies  and  prisons.  The  physician  Hashmoto 
Sanai,  and  with  him  over  two-score  of  men,  whose 
thoughts  were  ahead  of  their  time,  lost  their  lives 
under  the  executioner's  sword.  Sakuma  (1811-1864), 
who  taught  Yoshida  Shoin  (1831-1860),  who  taught 
the  Marquis  Ito,  and  who  advocated  national  defence 


THE  NATIVE  INTELLECT  FERTILIZED        291 

according  to  modern  methods  as  early  as  1851,  was 
assassinated  in  1864.  Yoshida  Shoin  (or  Toraijiro), 
who  marched  out  of  the  middle  ages  into  the  Nine- 
teenth Century  and  begged  to  be  taken  to  America 
on  Perry's  ship,  was  caged  and  beheaded,  but  not 
until  he  had  set  up  a  school  and  taught  and  inspired 
the  men  now  known  to  the  world  as  Count  Inouye 
and  the  Marcjuis  Ito.  Neither  Chinese  orthodoxy 
nor  the  political  system  of  Yedo  could  crush  out  the 
truth  that  finally  prevailed,  and  it  was  in  the  search 
for  and  dissemination  of  truth,  in  every  line  of 
incjuiry,  that  the  Ronin  scholar  led. 

In  the  chapter  on  "The  Recent  Revolutions  in 
,"in  ''The  Mikado's  Empire,"  we  have  shown  the 
ts  of  thought  that  flowed  to  form  that  mighty 
stream  on  which  the  ark  of  the  New  Japan  now  floats. 
Nitobe,  Satoh,  Clement,  Okakura,  and  the  writers 
for  the  Asiatic  Society  have  added  many  illuminating 
details. 

Hardly  less  potent  than  the  Dutchmen,  in  fertilizing 
during  two  centuries  the  intellect  of  Nippon  for  new 
h,  were  the  Chinese  scholars  who  fled  their 
try  during  the  troubles  attendant  on  the  fall 
of  the  Ming  dynasty  and  the  incoming  of  the  Man- 
cliius  who  now  rule  China. 

[n  the  islands  they  found  a  welcome  and  a  home, 
cially  in  Mito  and  Owari.  They  were  surprised 
iscover  the  backwardness  of  their  guests  in 
pTiiTosophy  and  theology,  for  the  Confucianism  in 
Nippon,   until   the   seventeenth   century,   was   of   a 


^pnilos 


292  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

primitive,  simple  type.  In  communal  North  China, 
the  system  of  Confucius,  having  absorbed  what  was 
possible  from  India,  through  Aryan  Buddhism,  and 
from  Taoism,  or  the  fruit  of  mind  in  individuahstic 
Southern  China,  had,  in  the  twelfth  century,  been 
wholly  recast.  The  sequel  of  an  outburst  of  popu- 
lism and  a  temporary  socialistic  revolution  mani- 
fested itself  in  long  and  deep  research  and  thinking, 
out  of  which  neo-Confucianism  emerged  as  a  world 
doctrine  and  a  universe  system  now  dominant  in  all 
Eastern  Asia.  It  was  this  restatement  of  China's  phi- 
losophy, by  Chu  Hi,  which  the  Ming  scholars  brought 
to  Japan,  and  which,  under  the  patronage  of  the  third 
and  fifth  shoguns,  lyemitsu  (1623-1649)  and  Tsuna- 
yoshi  (1681-1708),  became  official  orthodoxy.  To 
criticise  or  challenge  what  the  Seido,  or  University, 
taught,  might  without  peril  be  measurably  allowed, 
but  to  attack  or  violate  the  edicts  of  the  Government 
based  on  the  approved  philosophy,  meant  exile, 
imprisonment,  torture,  seppuku,  or  decapitation. 
All  of  these  methods  of  official  censure  were,  in  a 
shockingly  large  number  of  instances,  illustrated. 
In  these  latter  days  of  building  the  tombs  of  the 
prophets,  not  a  few  names,  that  were  long  behind  the 
clouds  of  dark  night,  now  shine  resplendent  in  silver. 
Opposed  to  this  neo-Confucianism  was  the  Oyomei 
system  of  philosophy,  founded  not  on  a  late  re-casting, 
which  had  hardened  after  five  hundred  years  into 
scholasticism,  but  on  a  re-reading  of  original  texts. 
It  identified  knowledge  and  action.     In  its  modern 


THE  NATIVE  INTELLECT  FERTILIZED        293 

form  it  fascinated  inquiring  minds  and  nourished  those 
men  of  Hght  and  leading  who  have  not  only  made  the 
New  Japan,  but  who  in  council,  diplomacy,  battle, 
and  initiative,  have  surprised  the  world.  Almost 
to  a  man  these  devotees  of  the  Oyomei  philosophy 
were  opposed  to  the  Bakufu.  Even  those  who  kept 
their  loyalty  to  Tokugawa  but  were  not  disobedient 
to  their  vision  of  truth,  became  champions  of  reform 
from  within,  wliile  accepting  science  from  without. 
Such  men  as  Ecliizen  Shungaku,  Yokoi  Heishiro, 
Yuri  Kinmasa,  Katsu  Awa,  and  Okubo  Ichiwo  have 
left  their  mark  indelibly  upon  history. 

''Oyomei"  is  the  Japanese  pronunciation  of  the 
name  of  the  Chinese  soldier  and  thinker  Wang  Yang 
Ming  (1472-1528),  the  great  protestant  against 
Chu  Hi's  Confucianism.  Wang  had  a  Washingtonian 
mind.  Oyomei 's  teachings  may  be  summed  up  in 
that  ancestral  motto,  which,  on  the  same  English 
shield  at  Sulgrave  with  the  spur  rowels  (which  are  not 
stars),  and  the  bars  (which  are  not  stripes),  teaches 
exitus  acta  prohat  (action  proves  profession).  ''More 
real  good  was  to  be  achieved  in  proceeding  straight 
to  action  under  the  guidance  of  conscience  which 
was  Heaven  and  all,  than  in  indulging  in  idle  talk 
about  the  subtlety  of  human  nature."  "The  purifi- 
cation of  the  heart  was  the  first  and  main  point  of 
study."    This  was  the  pith  of  Oyomeism. 

l^ushido  was  taught  only  for  practical  benefit,  and 
never  became  a  philosophy.  In  its  highest  develop- 
ment it  took  no  philosophic  form,  except  that  under 


294  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Oyomeian  teachers  it  became  a  method  of  Socratic 
doctrine  in  question  and  answer.  Hence  it  was 
that  men  who  hungered  for  intellectual  justification 
of  life  and  duty  read  eagerly  the  writings  of  Nakaye 
Toju  (1608-1649)  and  Kumazawa  Hanzan  (1619- 
1691),  who  made  the  teachings  of  Oyomei  a  creed. 

Herein  was  manifested  again  the  true  Japanese 
genius,  which  is  ever  impatient  with  the  abstract  and 
is  eager  for  the  practical.  Oyomei  transformed 
mediaeval  Confucianism  into  an  immediate  working 
principle  for  the  individual.  It  unshackled  some 
Japanese  minds  from  what  was  slavishly  communal. 
It  had  in  it  a  dash  of  personality  and  made  its  devotees 
willing  to  face  change.  The  main  idea,  contended  for 
and  reasserted  by  its  Japanese  exponents,  was  that 
there  should  be  immediate  relation  between  knowledge 
and  activity,  with  consistency  between  the  two. 
It  is  the  Dutch  ''raad  voor  daad"  (counsel  before 
action)  with  emphasis  on  the  daad.  It  shone  superbly 
in  that  greatest  of  all  modern  Japanese,  Okubo 
(1832-1878), —  greatest  in  the  sense  of  being  original 
and  creative, —  who  was  said  to  have  ^'a  European 
mind." 

It  is  significant  that  this  Oyomeism  was  most  culti- 
vated in  those  provinces  most  distant  from  Yedo, 
such  as  Satsuma,  Choshiu,  Tosa,  although  even  in 
Mito,  Owari,  and  Echizen,  groups  of  thinkers  and 
men  of  affairs  with  minds  hostile  to  the  Yedo  Academy 
arose,  and  were  ready  for  change.  Thus  the  men 
trained  in  the  Oyomei  principles  were  the  very  opposite 


THE  NATIVE  INTELLECT  FERTILIZED        295 

in  mind  to  those  who  wanted  above  all  to  keep  things 
as  they  were.  The  Oyomeians,  resourceful  and  alert, 
desired  reform.  Nevertheless,  their  special  mental 
discipline  revealed  no  definite  pohtical  goal. 

This  and  the  prize  set  before  them  —  complete 
national  unity  —  were  furnished  by  the  historical 
writers  who  adjusted  their  telescopes  of  research  to 
the  past  and  interpreted  its  full  meaning.  They 
showed  that  their  only  legitimate  sovereign  was  the 
Mikado  and  that  the  various  "bosses"  and  power- 
holders,  mayors  of  the  palace,  rings  of  Fujiwaras,  and 
Court  nobles,  and  the  Hojo,  Ashikaga,  and  Tokugawa 
lines  of  shoguns,  as  well  as  the  Taira,  were  historically 
rpers.  When  this  truth  once  possessed  the  hearts 
e  samurai,  they  flamed  out  in  reverence  for  tlieir 
supreme  lord,  and  the  determination  to  serve  him 
him  alone  possessed  them.  The  historical 
I,  led  by  the  daimio  and  scholars  of  Mito,  and 
Rni  Sanyo,  feeding  and  stimulating  men  of  Mazzini- 
like  minds,  furnished  the  point  of  contact  with  the 
Occident,  made  Japan  cosmopolitan  and  ready  to 
even  with  the  so-called  barbarians.  This  was 
,  even  though  their  purpose  was  veiled  by  apparent 
hatodof  the  Western  ''  barbarians."  In  a  word,  when 
eet  sent  by  Millard  Fillmore  in  1853  appeared, 
ere  was  a  mighty  army  of  brave  men  ready  to 
restore  the  ancient  relation  of  Throne  and  people,  to 
abolish  the  Camp,  and  to  march  out  of  the  middle 
ages  into  the  world's  be.st  century. 


suprc 


tnere 


CHAPTER  XXI 

THE   RUSSIAN  MENACE   IN   THE   NORTH 

While  these  inward  intellectual  movements  were 
preparing  the  Japanese  for  self-reformation  when 
opportunity  should  arise,  external  events  and  influ- 
ences were,  with  cumulative  power,  compelling  re- 
adjustment to  a  new  environment.  We  shall  now 
glance  at  affairs  in  the  far  North. 

From  the  tenth  to  the  seventeenth  centuries  the 
Ainu  hardly  furnished  a  problem  to  the  Government 
of  Japan.  It  took  a  long  time  for  the"  Japanese  to 
unveil  their  coasts,  and  to  get  a  clear  idea  of  what 
was  the  exact  domain  of  the  Mikado's  empire.  Yezo, 
called  first,  as  we  have  seen,  Watari  Shima  (Ferry 
Island),  was  first  garrisoned  in  662,  but  temporarily. 
It  was  not  probably  circumnavigated  by  Japanese 
in  any  scientific  fashion,  and  never  explored,  until 
near  the  Tokugawa  period.  Saghalien,  or  Karafuto, 
was  supposed  to  be  a  part  of  the  Asian  continent, 
until  the  spirit  of  exploration,  aroused  by  the  Russian 
menace,  prompted  Mamiya  Rinzo  (1781-1845)  to 
build  a  boat  especially  adapted  for  narrow  straits, 
and,  by  sailing  nearly  round  it,  to  prove  it  to  be  an 
island.     Then  it  was  possible  to  make  a  correct  map 

296 


THE  RUSSIAN  MENACE  IN  THE  NORTH      297 

ose  northern  island  possessions,  which  since  1868 
have  been  included  under  the  general  name  of  Hok- 
kaido, or  the  Northern  Sea  Circuit.  But  neither 
name  nor  real  possession  came  till  geography  was 
known.  In  truth,  the  Japanese  owe  largely  to  the 
Russian  menace,  as  a  provoking  cause,  their  modern 
national  unity,  solidarity,  and  development  of  power. 
Pressure  from  the  Muscovite  was  a  leading  element 
rcing  national  evolution. 
ii  the  native  consciousness,  the  island  we  call 
Yezo,  for  which  even  yet  the  Japanese  have  no  special 
name,  was  hardly  considered  a  part  of  Dai  Nippon. 
The  general  term  for  the  northern  region  of  Hondo 
above  the  thirty-seventh  parallel  was  Oshiu,  in  which 
seven  provinces  and  where  are  now  six  prefec- 
es.  Tlie  great  high-road  northwanl  into  this  Scot- 
nd  of  Japan  was  the  Oshiu-Kaido.  From  the  sho- 
1  city  of  Yedo  to  Awomori  the  distance  was 
hundred  and  forty  miles,  with  eighty-seven 
re-lay  stations,  the  road  and  its  equipment  being  much 
like  high-roads  in  Europe  during  the  same  period, 
is  well  to  go  back  and  trace  the  thread  of  events 
the  ninth  century,  when  Ainu  wars  ceased  on  the 
island.  What  brought  Japanese  pioneers  into 
was  the  lust  for  gold.  About  a.d.  1205,  a  boat 
the  daimio  Araki's  fief  in  Chikuzen,  carrying 
two  sailors  and  a  cook,  was  blown  to  sea  and  driven 
ezo  island.  While  they  waited  for  south  winds 
take  them  back,  the  cook,  in  going  after  water, 
found  a  shining  stone  at   the  foot  of  a  water-fall. 


auuv 
^^uires 

triree 


298  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Picking  it  up  and  hiding  it  from  his  companions,  he 
carried  the  nugget  home  and  presented  it  to  his 
daimio,  who  sent  it  to  the  Kamakura  Shogun,  who  was 
the  son  of  Yoritomo.  The  daimio  was  ordered  to  go 
to  Yezo,  to  take  with  him  the  cook  as  guide,  and  to 
prospect  for  further  riches,  while  the  discoverer 
received  a  present  of  five  thousand  bushels  of  rice 
and  was  allowed  to  take  his  master's  name,  Araki. 

An  expedition  of  over  a  thousand  men,  including 
laborers,  cooks,  gold-washers,  soldiers,  and  a  chap- 
lain, was  organized.  They  left  Chikuzen  July  9,  1205, 
and  made  landing  in  Yezo  in  August.  First  building 
a  fortification  to  guard  against  the  hostile  Ainu, 
they  began  washing  for  gold  dust,  but  from  the  very 
first  the  white  savages  gave  them  trouble.  Another 
castle  was  built,  which  to-day  still  bears  the  name  of 
the  quondam  cook,  who  became  in  succession,  gold- 
discoverer,  nobleman,  explorer,  and  commander. 
The  Japanese  remained  thirteen  years  all  together  in 
Yezo,  washing  in  various  streams  and  obtaining 
much  precious  metal,  but  the  hostility  between  the 
Southerners  and  the  Ainu  was  not  allayed.  In  a 
terrific  battle,  the  Ainu  were  victorious  and  slaugh- 
tered the  Japanese  to  the  last  man,  except  the  old 
Buddhist  priest,  who  is  said  to  have  been  kindly 
treated  by  the  Ainu  and  lived  to  the  age  of  one 
hundred  and  five.  Exulting  in  victory,  the  Ainu 
crossed  the  strait  to  raid  the  Japanese  settlements, 
but  were  beaten  off.  At  this  spot  again,  the  Musa 
gold  field,  in  1873,  washing  for  the  precious  metal 


[E  RUSSIAN  MENACE  IN  THE  NORTH     299 


according  to  modern  methods,  was  recommenced 
by  the  American  mining  engineer,  Henry  S.  Munroe, 
of  Columbia  University,  New  York,  who  recovered 
to  history  this  story  of  mediaeval  mining. 

During  the  long  era  of  civil  wars,  and  until  the  time 
of  lyeyasu,  Yezo  island  was  comparatively  neglected, 
but  the  southwestern  corner  was  held,  and  the  navi- 
gation of  the  Straits  of  Tsugaru  was  guarded.  In 
1442  the  first  colonizer  of  the  island,  and  ancestor  of 
the  daimio  of  Matsumae,  sprung  from  a  family  origi- 
nally of  Wakasa,  began  his  work.  Going  to  Yezo,  he 
helped  the  governor  to  put  down  an  Ainu  uprising, 
then  married  his  daughter,  and,  according  to  common 
custom,  took  the  name  of  his  father-in-law.  The 
great-grandson  of  this  man  ruled  the  Ainu  with  tact 
and  success,  encouraged  trade  and  commerce,  and 
invited  immigrants.  His  son  (1550-1618),  who 
pledged  submission  to  Hideyoshi  in  1587,  built  at 
Matsumae  a  castle  and  changed  his  name  to  that  of 
the  place  which  became  the  centre  of  Japanese  trade 
and  colonization  in  Yezo.  Henceforward  the  daimios 
of  Matsumae,  with  their  crest  of  four  diamonds,  or 
lozenges,  within  a  circle,  became  well  known.  From 
the  watch  tower  of  their  castle,  built  on  an  eminence 
commanding  the  town,  the  "black  ships"  of  the  pass- 
ing American  whalers  were  noted  and  reported  to 
Yeclo. 

No  attempts  were  made  to  civilize  the  Ainu  in  these 
early  years,  but  on  the  contrary  they  were  often 
cru(jlly  treated,  and  it  was  made  a  penal  offence  for 


300  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

any  Japanese  to  teach  them  the  arts  of  civilized  life. 
It  is  no  wonder  therefore  that  these  Aryan  savages 
revolted.  One  notable  attempt  to  regain  freedom 
was  made  under  the  famous  chief  Shagukhamu  in 
1669.  It  required  an  energetic  effort  and  the  put- 
ting forth  of  all  his  military  resources  by  the  lord  of 
Matsumae  to  put  down  this  uprising. 

There  are  many  books  on  this  single  episode,  beside 
others  that  treat  of  Ainu  chiefs  whose  personality 
was  marked.  A  library  of  books  on  the  Ainu  in 
Yezo  began  to  form.  Among  the  interesting  litera- 
ture of  northern  travel  is  a  lady's  illustrated  diary 
of  a  journey  from  Yedo  to  Hakodate  and  back,  de- 
scribing in  classical  style  the  famous  frontier  stone 
at  Taga,  and  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  Ainu. 
Several  books  tell  of  Japanese  sailors  picked  up  by 
Russian  ships  and  brought  to  Nagasaki.  Others 
describe  the  various  Ainu  rebellions  until  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  one  being  as  late  as  1789.  Others 
summarize  the  information  contained  in  that  great 
mine  of  information,  the  Dutch  books,  especially  the 
work  of  Maerten  Gerritsz  Vries,  who  in  1643  made 
notable  discoveries  in  northern  Japanese  waters. 
Others  treat  of  Japanese  dealings  with  the  Russians 
in  the  north.  One  author  in  1802  refuted  earnestly 
the  impression  that  the  northern  possessions  of  Japan 
are  useless  for  the  central  Government;  others  urge 
the  necessity  of  the  development  of  Yezo.  One 
map  of  Saghalien  shows  the  Japanese  settlements 
made  there  early  in  the  nineteenth  century.   Another, 


THE  RUSSIAN  MENACE  IN  THE  NORTH     301 


besides  giving  the  official  correspondence  concerning 
the  Russian  descents  on  Itorup  island,  with  a  diary 
of  events  of  1807,  presents  the  popular  songs  and 
squibs  to  which  the  occasion  gave  rise. 

The  Russian  menace  in  the  north  was  probably  the 
first  scries  of  events  that  carried  into  the  official  mind 
at  Yedo  serious  doubts  as  to  whether  the  system  of 
lyeyasu  was,  after  all,  to  last  forever.  The  resistless 
advance  of  the  Slavs  eastward  had  begun  about  the 
time;  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  ])eople  faced  westward. 
The  one  marched  across  half-frozen  soil  to  seek  warm 
seas.  The  other  sailed  over  the  blue  ocean  to  find 
land  and  freedom  of  conscience.  A  prolonged  duel 
between  the  Cossack  and  Tartar  opened.  But  with 
rivers  and  boats,  snow  and  sledges,  on  horse  and  by 
wagon,  Siberia  was  won  and  the  Russian  settlements 
multiplied.  The  Holy  Greek  Church,  conditioned  in 
})revious  centuries  by  Turk  and  Mongol,  reasserted 
her  life  in  far  eastern  Asia.  She  blessed  her  children 
as  she  exhorted  them  to  possess  the  lands  of  the  pagan. 

Russia  being  thus  far  denied  the  gift  of  harboi-s  and 
access  to  warm  seas,  the  northern  islands  of  Japan,  so 
slightly  cared  for  by  the  Yedo  Government,  offered 
a  constant  challenge  to  Muscovite  enterprise  and 
cuiddity.  Kamschatka  was  known  in  1700  by  the 
Czar's  sailors.  In  1728  Bering  reached  the  waters 
that  bear  his  name.  In  1736  Spadenburg  voyaged 
to  the  group  of  islands  which  he  called  the  Smokers 
or  Kuriles,  which  are  but  a  geological  continuation  of 
Yezo  island.     When  a  Japanese  junk  was  wrecked 


302  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

on  the  Aleutian  Islands,  —  probably  but  one  out  of 
thousands  of  like  fortune,  through  the  long  ages,  — 
Queen  Catherine,  in  1792,  after  ten  years  of  detention, 
kindly  sent  the  crew  home.  Under  her  patronage 
a  professorship  of  Japanese  was  started  at  Irkutz. 
She  attempted,  but  in  vain,  to  open  intercourse  with 
Japan ;  but,  despite  politeness  and  proffered  brother- 
hood, Yedo  remained  piggishly  obdurate. 

In  1804  the  Emperor  Alexander,  wishing  to  delimit 
or  rectify  the  frontier,  again  attempted  to  open 
intercourse  and  sent  his  special  ambassador  Resanoff 
to  Nagasaki.  The  Japanese  were  damnably  and 
devilishly  polite  to  him,  but  after  long  delays  came 
the  answer,  ''All  communications  between  you  and 
us  are  impossible."  It  was  this  Satanic  etiquette 
that  decided  Perry  to  keep  away  from  Nagasaki, 
to  go  direct  to  Yedo,  and  not  to  take  "no"  for  an 
answer. 

The  angry  Russian  envoy  went  off  determined  on 
revenge,  and  on  his  way  home  incited  two  Russian 
naval  officers  to  land  on  the  Japanese  coast.  They 
did  so,  plundering  some  poor  fishermen's  villages. 
For  this  act  Golownin  was  later  to  suffer. 

The  Russian  activities  of  exploration  made  it 
almost  a  certainty  that  Japan^s  frontiers  would  be 
violated  and  her  barbarous  and  unsocial  policy  of 
exclusion  would  be  compromised.  Krusenstern  of 
Kronstadt  made  his  famous  voyage  from  1803  to 
1806  and  collected  a  Ainu  vocabulary.  Golownin,  in 
the  sloop  of  war  Diana,  was  sent  out  in  1807  to  explore 


'HE  RUSSIAN  MENACE  IN  THE  NORTH     303 

the  Russian  waters  in  the  North  Pacific.  Driven 
by  lack  of  food  and  water  to  land  upon  Kunashiri 
Island,  he  was  seized  and  imprisoned  during  two  years, 
but  finally  was  set  at  liberty.  His  book,  ''Memoirs 
of  a  Captivity  in  Japan,"  translated  into  many 
languages,  became  the  source  of  most  modern  im- 
pressions concerning  the  Japanese. 

This  series  of  events  roused  in  Yedo  a  tremendous 
excitement,  the  most  interesting  result  of  which  was 
a  fresh  outburst  of  literary  activity,  as  shown  in  the 
creation  of  a  library  of  manuscripts  and  printed  books 
on  the  Northern  Islands  and  the  Ainu,  now  increased 
to  over  half  a  thousand.  Most  of  these  are  listed 
and  annotated  in  Chamberlain's  "Aino  Studies." 
The  earhest  European  work  in  whicli  the  island  of 
Yezo  is  explicitly  mentioned  is  l)y  Kliad  Nicolai, 
Munich,  1619.  The  standard  work  on  Korea,  Riu 
Kiu,  Yezo,  and  the  Bonin  Islands  by  Rin  Shihei,  in 
1785,  was  translated  by  Klaproth,  who  for  a  wliile 
enjoyed  Russian  honors  and  emolument.  In  lcS09 
a  Japanese  author  translated  a  work,  probably  from 
the  Russian,  defending  the  mental  powers  of  the  Ainu 
and  arguing  that  they  were  the  intellectual  equals  of 
the  Chinese,  Tartars,  and  Japanese.  The  first  Ainu 
vocabulary,  or  dictionary,  based  on  Krusenstern's  list, 
containing  two  thousand  Ainu  words,  was  by  Davidow, 
St.  Petersburg,  1813.  Another  volume  details  the 
gen(5alogy  of  the  house  of  Matsumae  from  a.d.  880, 
and  the  family  annals  from  1191  to  1789.  One  author 
gives  in  his  book  a  list  of  Chinese  characters  as  suitable 


304  JAPANESE  NATION   IN  EVOLUTION 

for  writing  the  place  names  of  Ainu  land,  the  selection 
being  made  for  the  government  of  Hakodate.  The 
policy  of  blotting  out  aboriginal  Aryan  names,  begun 
in  the  eighth  century,  was  diligently  continued,  but  the 
time  was  to  come  when  the  Japanese  would  be  ashamed 
of  themselves  for  thus  Mongolizing  their  country. 

Further  proofs  that  the  Russian  claims  to  territory 
in  the  North  helped  powerfully  to  consolidate  the 
Japanese  empire  are  seen  in  the  determination  of 
Mamiya  Rinzo  (1781-1845)  to  find  out  whether 
Saghalien  was  part  of  Siberia  or  an  island.  Born  in 
Hatachi,  he  learned  land  surveying  from  the  Dutch 
and  became  a  petty  officer  under  the  shogunate. 
Ordered  to  proceed  north,  he  built  a  long,  narrow 
boat,  specially  adapted  for  the  work,  and  started 
with  Matsuda  Denjuro,  the  noted  author  and  explorer 
of  the  interior  of  Saghalien.  In  his  first  expedition, 
in  April,  1808,  Mamiya  reached  Cape  Lyak,  in  Lat. 
51°  55'  N.,  here  making  up  his  mind  that  Saghalien 
was  an  island,  though  figured  on  all  maps  as  a  con- 
tinuation of  Siberia.  In  a  second  expedition  in 
1808-1809  he  extended  his  explorations  to  Nanio  Vil- 
lage, 53°  8'  N.,  on  the  west  coast,  whence  he  could 
look  out  northward  on  the  expanded  Saghalien  Gulf 
and  see  the  lines  of  land  on  either  side  separating 
like  the  branches  of  the  letter  Y.  Having  crossed 
the  narrowest  part  of  the  ''Straits  of  Tartary"  and 
into  East  Manchuria  and  been  the  first  known  Japan- 
ese to  visit  Siberia,  he  returned  to  Yedo  and  wrote 
an  illustrated  account  of  his  travels. 


[E  RUSSIAN  MENACE  IX  THE  NORTH     305 

lonor  of  this  intrepid  explorer,  the  Japanese 
Government,  in  1905,  renamed  the  water  passage 
between  island  and  continent  Mamiya  Kaikyo,  or 
Mamiya  Strait.  On  the  basis  of  the  United  States 
H.O.  charts.  No.  1777,  of  August,  1900,  and  No.  1778, 
published  June,  1904,  showing  the  northern  and 
southern  third,  and  the  British  Admiralty  chart  of 
1859,  corrected  in  1903,  delineating  the  middle  sec- 
tion, the  Hydrographic  Dopartnicnt,  I.J.N,  in  Tokio, 
March,  1905,  under  Real-Aihniral  Kimotski,  compiled 
a  superb  chart  in  three  sheets,  over  nine  feet  long, 
which  was  used  by  the  expedition  which  recaptured 
the  island  in  July,  1905,  during  sittings  of  the  Peace 
Conference  at  Portsmouth.  The  Japanese  navy 
had  not  surveyed  the  waters  of  Saghalien,  and  the 
show  of  names  of  navigators  all  along  the  island  coa&i; 
and  the  long  occupation  of  Northern  Saghalien,  makes 
it  difficult  to  see  how  Russia  could  ever  agree  to  cede 
the  whole  island  to  Japan. 

These  varied  activities  in  .ships  and  books,  of 
explorer  and  students,  during  the  first  half  of 
the  nineteenth  century  aroused  the  Yedo  Govern- 
ment. The  daimio  Matsumae  was  punished  for 
his  lack  of  energy  in  guarding  against  the  enemy, 
by  transferring  him  and  his  fief  to  Hondo.  In 
1821  the  family  was  repatriated  in  the  ancestral 
seat  in  Yezo,  and  there  is  still  a  baron  of  the  line 
and  name.  Praiseworthy  efforts  at  colonization 
were  made  and  a  policy  of  kindness  to  the  Ainu 
begun  which  reflects  credit  on  the  Tokugawa,  and 


306  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

compares  favorably  with  similar  measures  of  Eu- 
ropean nations. 

Many  more  attempts  were  made  by  Russia  to  obtain 
a  foothold  on  Japanese  soil,  but  no  treaty  of  peace  and 
friendship  was  signed  until  February  7,  1855.  This 
was  some  months  after  the  American  success  inaugu- 
rated by  Millard  Fillmore. 

Thus  gradually  the  northern  sea  frontier  of  Japan 
was  ''moth-eaten."  The  Kurile  Islands  gradually 
came  into  Russian  possession,  and  the  whole  island  of 
Saghalien  was  occupied.  In  1875  the  Russians, 
through  De  Rosen's  diplomacy,  carried  on  in  Tokio, 
received  a  title-deed  in  exchange  for  the  useless  part 
of  the  Kurile  Islands  —  which  the  Japanese  had 
already  thought  they  owned. 

The  impression  left  on  the  Japanese  mind  by  these 
encroachments  on  the  north  by  Russia  —  ever  suffer- 
ing a  hunger  for  more  land  and  a  warm  sea  —  was 
intensified  by  the  temporary  occupation  in  1861 
of  Tsushima,  whence  they  were  compelled  by  the 
British  fleet,  at  the  request  of  Katsu  Awa  (1823- 
1900),  to  remove.  What  that  hfelong  impression  of 
danger  from  Russia  was,  is  best  shown  in  the  answer 
of  the  two  Japanese  lads  who  first  came  in  1866  as 
students  to  America.  ''What  brought  you  here?" 
asked  their  friend.  Dr.  J.  M.  Ferris.  Their  reply  came 
quickly,  "To  learn  how  to  make  big  cannon,  so  that 
our  country  will  not  be  conquered  by  Russia." 

Another  nation  and  flag  appeared  on  the  ocean  and 
in  the  North,  in  the  second  third  of  the  nineteenth 


m 


THE  RUSSIAN  MENACE  IN  THE  NORTH     307 


century.  The  American  whalers,  rounding  Cape 
Horn,  pursued  their  prey  in  the  seas  of  Japan,  and 
soon  from  the  watch-tower  at  Matsumae,  the  passing 
black  ships  were  counted  by  scores.  In  1839  a 
majority  of  the  555  Yankee  ships  in  the  whale  fishery 
hunted  the  sperm  whale  in  the  Pacific.  In  1847  the 
number  of  vessels  had  risen  to  729,  and  the  capital 
invested  amounted  to  $20,000,000.  In  1848  the 
New  Bedford  men  had  passed  through  Bering  Straits 
into  the  Arctic  Ocean,  and  of  the  whole  American  fleet, 
278  vessels  were  in  North  Pacific  waters. 

This  meant  frequent  shipwn^cks  on  the  coast  of 
Japan,  with  varied  treatment,  kind  or  cruel,  of  Ameri- 
can sailors,  of  which  one  must  read  in  Professor  E.  W. 
Clement's  corrected  and  annotated  edition  of  Hil- 
dreth's  "Japan  as  It  Was  and  Is,"  reissued  in  Chicago 
in  1906.  The  waifs  were  sent  to  the  United  States 
by  way  of  Nagasaki  and  Batavia.  Japanese  were 
also  brought  to  America.  ''John  Munn"  (Manijiro), 
who  learned  English  at  Fairhaven,  near  New  Bedford, 
was,  in  1854,  unknown  to  Perry,  in  the  rear  and  hidden 
pait  of  the  treaty-tent  as  interpreter,  and  lived  to 
translate  Bowditch's  ''Navigator."  Joseph  Heco, 
author  of  the  "Narrative  of  a  Japanese"  (1850-1889), 
was  educated  in  Baltimore,  and  did  good  service  as 
interpreter  in  Japan,  especially  when  with  MacDougal 
in  the  U.S.S.S.  Wyotnmg  at  Shimonoseki  in  1863. 
These  are  two  known,  among  niany,  who,  hke  soldiers 
who  have  nobly  served  their  country,  sleep  in  graves 
marked  "unknown." 


308  JAPANESE  NATION   IN  EVOLUTION 

On  the  American  side  we  have  a  most  romantic 
and  wonderful  but  true  figure  in  Ranald  McDonald 
(1824-1894).  In  the  Executive  Document,  No.  39 
of  the  Thirty-Second  Congress,  is  his  deposition. 
^^That  started  Perry."  In  1891  Dr.  Nitobe  wrote, 
''In  his  work,  although  it  is  httle  noticed  and  less 
known,  we  trace  a  promise  of  American  educational 
activity  in  Japan."  Mr.  R.  E.  Lewis  in  his  ''Educa- 
tional Conquest  of  the  Far  East"  (1903)  outlines  the 
story  of  modern  education  in  Japan.  The  narrative  of 
this  first  teacher  of  English  in  Japan  is  also  given  in 
fiction  by  Mrs.  Eva  Emery  Dye,  in  "McDonald  of 
Oregon,"  Chicago,  1906.  This  son  of  a  Chinook  prin- 
cess and  Archibald  McDonald  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company,  was  born  at  Astoria.  The  lad  met  ship- 
wrecked Japanese  at  Vancouver.  In  his  twenties, 
instead  of  warming  for  life  a  three-legged  stool  in  the 
Company's  Canadian  office,  he  shipped  before  the 
mast.  He  had  himself,  in  1845,  put  ashore  in  Japan 
and  was  taken  to  Matsumae,  where  he  at  once  began 
making  a  Japanese  vocabulary,  and  thence  to  Naga- 
saki. With  true  educational  and  missionary  spirit, 
McDonald  began  teaching  the  language  of  Will 
Adams  (Shakespeare's  contemporary,  and  who  was  in 
Japan  from  1600  to  1620)  to  j^oung  Japanese. 

McDonald  raised  up  a  school  of  interpreters  for 
Biddle  (1846),  Glyn  (1849),  Perry  (1853),  and  other 
Americans,  of  whose  visits  to  Japan  we  have  written 
in  the  "Life  of  Matthew  Calbraith  Perry."  Of  the 
fourteen  young  men  who  came  daily  to  his  cage  in 


[E  RUSSIAN  MENACE  IN  THE  NORTH      309 


Nagasaki,  to  learn  English  with  the  help  of  Moriyama, 
the  scholar  in  Dutch,  and  a  Dutch-English  dictionary, 
several  became  not  only  useful  but  famous,  among 
them  Moriyama  Yenoske  and  Hori  Tatsnoske,  ''all 
student  samurai  of  the  double  sword."  On  winter 
niglits,  Ranald's  cage  became  "sl  house  of  reception, 
lit  with  wax  candles  on  low  scjuare  stands.  Men  of 
all  orders  came  to  see  and  talk  with  the  first  teacher  of 
English  in  Japan." 

It  is  now  in  place  to  tell  of  President  Millard  Fill- 
more's project  to  invite  Japan  to  enter  the  world's 
brotherhood.  Perhaps  of  all  Americans,  Fillmore 
enjoys  the  highest  share  of  honor  in  winning  the 
Japanese  to  fraternity. 


CHAPTER   XXII 

DIPLOMACY   AND   COMMOTION 

The  world  in  general  knows  the  outside  story  of 
the  opening  of  Japan  by  the  removal  of  the  amado  — 
storm  doors,  which  let  in  the  light.  The  inner  story 
may  not  be  as  familiar. 

Oregon ;  the  Mexican  War;  Cahfornia ;  the  American 
whalers  in  the  Pacific  Ocean ;  the  desire  to  get  rid  of 
European  despotism  on  the  continent  of  America, 
as  in  Alaska;  the  eagerness  for  trade;  the  need  of  coal, 
following  upon  the  application  of  steam;  Japan's 
position  as  a  link  between  the  Occident  and  the 
mother-continent  of  Asia,  —  all  these  were  motives 
apart  from  the  frankly  acknowledged  desire  for  the 
Christianization  of  Japan,  and  the  hope  that  she  would 
emerge  from  seclusion  and  enter  the  world's  sister- 
hood. The  Sun-goddess  had  sulked  in  the  cave  long 
enough. 

For  the  purpose  of  tendering  the  olive  branch  to  a 
proud  hermit,  there  was  no  better  President  of  the 
United  States,  nor  had  the  American  people  ever  a 
more  efficient  servant  in  the  chair  of  the  navy  depart- 
ment. Millard  Fillmore  (1800-1874)  and  William 
Alexander    Graham    (1804-1885)    were    among   the 

310 


DIPLOMACY   AND  COMMOTION  311 

ablest  servants  of  the  nation.  It  was  a  time  when 
the  activities  of  the  United  States  navy  and  their 
commanders  were  notable  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 
Brilliant  chapters  were  being  added  to  the  records  of 
exploration,  discovery,  diplomacy,  the  enterprises  of 
peace,  and  the  assertion  of  American  nationality. 
Such  men  as  Graham  and  Kennedy  in  the  Navy 
Department,  and  such  Secretaries  of  State  as  Web- 
ster, Everett,  and  Seward,  dealt  with  the  Japanese 
question. 

For  the  mission  to  a  proud  people,  a  naval  officer  of 
the  highest  attainments  in  science  was  chosen.  He 
had  indeed  been  a  man  of  war  from  his  youth  up. 
Born  in  1794,  he  was  a  midshipman  in  1809.  He 
trod  the  decks  of  the  frigate  President  in  1812,  and 
was  lieutenant  in  1813.  Yet  he  was  familiar  with 
the  courts  and  kings  of  Europe,  from  Russia  to 
Britain.  He  knew,  too,  the  common  and  lower  grades 
of  man  in  Africa  and  Mexico.  He  was  a  scholar  in 
the  prime  of  life.  By  general  reading  and  by  what 
Glyn  and  Ranald  McDonald,  Cooper  and  Biddle,  had 
written,  he  had  discerned  the  tlifference  between  the 
people  of  Japan  and  their  governors,  and  knew  well 
the  distinction  between  a  nation  and  its  temporary 
form  of  government.  No  man  understood  the  real 
Japanese  better,  discerning  both  their  reality  and 
their  sham,  than  Perry.  Patiently  selecting  his  men 
and  ships  and  supervising  their  equipment,  despite 
all  delays,  he  secured  a  staff  and  squadron  represent- 
ing   the    highest    naval    science.     In    choosing   the 


312  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

presents  for  ^'His  Majesty,"  the  Yedo  shogun,  he 
spent  much  time  and  care.  He  did  not  know  that 
Komei  in  Kioto,  father  of  the  present  illustrious 
ruler,  was  the  real  Emperor  (1847-1867),  and  most 
of  the  Japanese  themselves  in  reality  knew  no 
more. 

In  the  forefront  of  scientific  achievement,  virtually 
the  father  of  the  new  American  navy  that  was  born 
in  the  era  of  steam,  and  one  of  the  first  users  of  the 
electric  telegraph,  Perry  was  President  Fillmore's 
own  choice.  Divining  the  hunger  of  the  hermits  for 
the  triumphs  of  science,  the  Commodore  was  given 
also  a  free  hand.  He  had  hints  of  these  eager  spirits, 
to  whom  knowledge  of  the  outer  world  had  long  been 
forbidden.  To  that  noble  appetite  he  longed  to 
minister  by  tendering  keys  to  the  treasure  house  of 
science.  He  loaded  his  store  ships  with  a  railway 
and  locomotive  engine,  telegraph  wires,  various 
machines  and  instruments  with  their  equipment, 
ploughs,  agricultural  tools,  sewing-machines,  keys, 
locks,  lamps,  and  a  hundred  forms  of  American 
invention. 

The  commodore  proposed  to  set  up  on  the  strand 
at  Yokohama  an  industrial  exposition  that  should  lure 
Sky-Shine  out  of  her  cave.  He  would  make  the  gods 
laugh  with  his  tickling  comedy.  Where  the  islanders 
had  deified  and  worshipped  the  forces  of  nature,  he 
would  show  how  man  had  tamed  and  harnessed  them. 
All  of  Uzume's  fun  should  be  there.  He  trusted  to 
get  the  stone  door  of  the  cave  ajar.    Then  he  hoped 


DIPLOMACY   A\D  COMMOTION  313 

for  some  god  of  strong  hands,  in  the  form  of  a  trained 
diplomatist,  who  should  pull  it  wide  open. 

Perry  succeeded.  His  programme,  as  carried  out, 
was  the  apparition  of  steamers  off  Uraga  in  Yedo 
Bay  in  July,  1853  ;  delivery  of  President  Millard 
Fillmore's  letter  in  the  pavilion,  not  at  Nagasaki,  but 
at  Kurihama  (where  now  rises  the  golden-lettered 
obelisk  inscribed  by  Marquis  Ito  and  to  which  the 
Mikado  subscribed  money,  in  Perry  Park) ;  then 
''sayonara;"  and  eight  months'  leisure  for  the  Yedo 
authorities  to  meditate  over  tea,  tobacco,  and  hibachi, 
and  also  for  the  boiling  of  the  political  pot.  He  re- 
turned the  following  February,  with  an  augmented 
squadron  of  twelve  vessels,  ranged  in  crescent  line 
off  the  shore  of  Kanagawa,  within  sound  of  the  night 
booming  of  the  temple  bells  of  Yedo.  He  came  to 
Adzuma,  where  Yamato  Dake  of  legend  had  been,  for 
commerce,  yet  he  made  no  secret  of  his  belief  that  the 
United  States  was  a  Christian  country.  He  would 
do  no  business  on  Sunday.  On  that  day  the  one 
flag  more  sacred  to  an  American  than  the  stars  and 
stripes  was  hoisted  to  the  peak.  It  called  men  to 
worship  not  local  gods,  but  the  one  God,  Father  of  all. 
W  orship  and  praise  were  held  on  deck. 

Frightful  was  the  excitement  on  land.  Many  were 
the  symbolical  cups  of  cold  water  drunk  and  the  white 
kimonos  put  on  in  expectation  of  death  in  battle 
with  ''hairy  to-jin,"  for  these  Americans  looked  Hke 
tlie  Ainu,  and  were  as  hairy-faced  as  Yezo  savages, 
or  the  ancient  nobles  and  mikados  from  Ama,  as  the 


314  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

artists  represent  them.  Large  was  the  army  collected 
and  in  waiting  for  the  ravages  expected  from  the 
American  barbarians,  if  things  should  go  wrong. 
But  no !  Politeness,  courtesy,  humanity,  with  no 
humiliations,  was  the  American  demand.  Happily 
for  Japan,  though  the  shogun  lyesada  (1824-1858) 
was  both  a  youth  and  a  weakling,  his  premier  Abe 
grasped  the  situation.  Despite  dissenting  voices 
and  fierce  criticism,  he  acted  with  statesmanlike  wis- 
dom, and  sent  his  wisest  commissioners  to  treat  with 
the  American  envoy.  Hayashi,  the  professor  of  the 
orthodox  philosophy  and  Chinese  literature  in  the 
Seido  University,  and  the  American  Commodore 
made  a  covenant  of  peace  and  friendship,  almost 
exactly  like  that  in  the  draft  proposed  by  the  Dutch, 
through  J.  Doncker  Curtius  and  known  in  Yedo. 
Dr.  S.  Wells  Williams  proposed  the  '' favored  nation" 
clause.  Nothing  was  said  in  the  text  of  extra-terri- 
toriality,  nor  was  trade  or  residence  yet  in  sight. 

After  the  treaty  followed  many  treats.  Grati- 
tude for  Japanese  hospitality  and  the  unsealing  of 
two  ports  (one  of  them  utterly  worthless)  for  sailors 
to  obtain  food,  fuel,  and  water,  meant  also  a  lively 
sense  of  favors  to  come.  The  refreshments  on  the 
Japanese  side  were  furnished  by  Momokawa,  the  Yedo 
caterer,  and  his  bill  was  for  2000  riyo,  or  $10,000  in 
present  values.  We  have  the  picture,  menu,  and 
translation  on  Tokio  postal  cards  of  1907.  Then 
followed  the  unpacking  of  bales  and  boxes.  The 
puffing  locomotive  whirled  round  the  railway  track. 


DIPLOMACY   AND  COMMOTION 


315 


The  telegraph  wires  thrilled  with  sparks  of  light. 
Transmitted  into  words  and  syllables,  by  writing  of 
dots  and  dashes,  the  mystic  fire  of  heaven  spoke  as 
Sky-Shine  did  to  Kobo.  The  polished  machinery  and 
the  wonder-working  devices  of  industry  were  as 
fascinating  as  the  mirror  and  jewels  before  the  cave. 
Many  thoughtful  men  asked  which  were  the  "bar- 
barians." After  this,  the  Yedo  official  world  hoped 
to  go  to  sleep  again. 

The  fleet  sailed  away,  but  the  political  pot  boiled 
furiously  within.  Sky-Shine  was  far  from  being 
entirely  out  of  the  cave.  A  few  American  ships 
approaching  Japan  and  expecting  trade  were  turned 
back,  their  skii)|)ers  furious  at  Perry  for  securing  so 
little. 

Who  should  pull  the  rock  away  and  let  full  light 
shine  all  over  the  Honorable  Country,  yes,  and  to  the 
world  afar?  Abe,  Ise  no  Kami,  was  followed  by 
Hotta  (1810-1864),  a  premier  of  scholarly  tastes  and 
even  broader  mind,  who  saw  the  necessity  of  "the 
frogs  in  a  well,"  as  the  native  proverb  mirrors  the 
conceited  hermits,  knowing  something  of  "the  great 
ocean"  of  humanity  and  the  world  at  large.  He  it 
was  who  opened  a  school  of  foreign  language  and 
science  —  the  germ  of  the  splendid  Imperial  Univer- 
sit)'  in  Tokio.  It  w^as,  in  deference  to  the  fire-eaters, 
called  "  Office  for  the  Examination  of  Barbarian  Books." 
He  was  one  of  the  two  noble  spirits  who  cooper- 
ated to  make  Japan  take  a  long  stej)  forward  in  history 
and  toward  a  nobler  goal  than  timid  or  narrow  bigots 


316  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

ever  conceived  of.  Under  Abe's  directions,  permis- 
sion was  given  to  the  daimios  to  build  men-of-war,  a 
national  flag  was  adopted,  —  the  red  sun  on  a  white 
field,  —  Katsu  Awa  was  sent  to  Nagasaki  to  study 
engineering,  a  musketry  instructor  taught  by  the 
Dutch  was  commissioned,  forts  were  built  in  Yedo 
Bay,  and  preparations  were  made  to  order  warships  in 
Holland.  Sakuma  (instructor  among  others  of  Japan's 
leading  philosopher,  Kato  Hiroyuki)  proposed  the 
hiring  of  foreign  experts  who  should  come  to  Japan  to 
teach  the  Japanese  modern  arts  and  sciences.  Thus 
he  foreshadowed  that  army  of  five  thousand  Yatoi, 
who  from  1865  to  1900  taught  Japan  her  new  ways. 

Within  eighteen  months  of  Perry's  departure  ap- 
peared Townsend  Harris  (1803-1878),  founder  of 
the  New  York  Free  Academy,  now  the  University  of 
the  City  of  New  York,  whose  president  in  1907  is 
also  head  of  the  Japan  Society  formed  when  Kuroki 
visited  Manhattan.  Harris  had  no  fleet  or  soldiers. 
He  persevered  in  kindness  and  firmness  and  he  told 
the  truth.  At  every  point  he  beat  the  liars  and  the 
men  of  sham,  which  the  Bakufu  system,  or  Tent 
Government,  itself  far  gone  in  decay,  grew  like  mush- 
rooms on  a  rotten  log.  The  American  entered  Yedo 
with  no  humiliation,  obtaining  audience  of  the  sho- 
gun.  He  then  virtually  opened  a  school  to  teach 
hermits  the  laws  of  modern  life  among  nations,  and 
he  kept  it  four  months.  He  demanded  a  treaty 
and  the  opening  of  ports  to  commerce,  with  trade  and 
residence. 


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til 

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I^Hfe^^^Bi^^^^^^^^Bi^^^l^^^^^^^^l 

Tmk  Ykim)  SiHMti  n  a.m>  His  Wikk  in    Tkkatv  Day 


DIPLOMACY   AND  COMMOTION  317 

It   was   a   critical   moment   of  strain   and   stress 

between  Throne  and  Camp.    Within  the  empire,  the 

\  olcano  was  ready  to  blow  the  rocky  cap  ofif  the  Yedo 

,      usurpation.      The    long-gathering    forces    of    public 

I      opinion  were  on  the  point  of  explosion.     At  Kioto 

-vas   thick   darkness   concerning   knowledge   of   the 

uter  world.     At  Yedo  there  was  some  acquaintance 

vith  modem  movements  and  with  dangers  and  forces 

from  afar.     Hotta  received  Mr.  Harris,  and  then  he, 

fnllowine  Professor  Hayashi,  went  to  Kioto  in  person 

to    .-(cure   the    Imperial   signature.     After  the   ebb 

and  flow  of  opinion  in  the  palace,  Hotta's  labors  were 

r  •  ,  1  11  I  1  .  ^  ^        1  1  •      1  I 

■■."■.•  !  -  ■  ■a. 

.\[    [:.■  -  -     :  -    -  ^     ,       :iis 

Ki  and  died  soon  after.  His  successor  was  li 
-1860),  lord  of  Hikone. 
ta,  lord  of  Bitchiu,  did  not  die  in  vain.  He  fell 
lobly  in  the  wreck  of  a  tottering  system.  At  Kioto, 
Sanjo  (1837-1891),  the  kuge,  was  the  stalwart  who 
opix)sed  the  idea  of  relegating  the  control  of  foreign 
affairs  to  the  shogun,  contending  that  the  Mikado 
-hould  have  and  keep  all  power  in  his  ov^ti  hands. 
Aliemately  honored  and  degraded,  in  e.xile  and 
'  hoaor,  Sanjo  rose  in  1874  to  be  premier  of  Japan. 
He  was  one  of  the  first  at  Court  to  know  that  the 
secret  of  the  opposition  to  and  th  —  --ination  of 
foreigners  and  burning  of  their  leg  as  one  of 

indirect  force.     The  real  object. of  the  assassins  and 
iaries  was  the  destruction  of  the  Bakufu  system. 
situation   was   comDlicated   bv  the  domestic 


318  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

necessity  of  choosing  an  heir  to  the  shogunate. 
Women  ruled  the  Yedo  Court,  and  the  Boudoir 
threatened  to  overweigh  the  Council  table.  While 
the  Bakufu  pensionaries  considered  the  selection  of 
an  heir  a  purely  family  matter,  others,  good  men  and 
wise,  argued,  in  view  of  the  crisis,  that  this  was  a 
matter  on  which  national  destinies  might  hang. 
Furthermore,  there  were  differences  of  opinion  as  to 
how  the  Country,  if  open,  was  to  treat  with  outsiders. 
One  could  now  spell  nation  with  an  N,  for  the  spirit 
of  nationality  was  hourly  rising. 

Abe  had  desired  Keiki,  son  of  Mito,  popular  with 
the  daimios  and  the  Kioto  Court,  to  be  shogun,  but 
between  his  duties  in  the  Council  and  the  women  of 
the  Yedo  Court,  who  disliked  Keiki,  he  was  obliged  to 
temporize  in  order  to  carry  out  his  liberal  schemes  so 
distasteful  to  the  ladies.  It  was  the  petticoat  and  not 
the  brains  of  the  Bakufu  that,  in  Hotta's  absence  in 
Kioto,  had  secured  the  elevation  of  li  to  the  premier- 
ship. He  at  once  yielded  to  them  and  appointed 
lyemochi  (1846-1866).  The  boy-shogun,  son  of  the 
daimio  of  Kii,  was  thirteen  years  old  and  was  thir- 
teenth of  the  line,  yet  in  Japan  is  no  superstition  about 
this  number,  for  neither  Christ,  nor  Judas,  nor  the 
Supper  was  known.  It  was  the  vice  of  government, 
in  both  Kioto  and  Yedo,  that  there  was  no  sharp  dis- 
tinction between  the  Court  and  the  Government, 
being  then  only  a  little  better  than  the  Korean  method. 
Hence  the  vigor  of  reform  and  wisdom  in  the  Consti- 
tution of  1889  on  this  subject. 


DIPLOMACY   AND  COMMOTION  319 

With  perhaps  the  purest  motives,  and  to  save  his 
country  from  the  fate  of  India  or  China,  but  with  a 
hand  as  high  as  any  Alva  or  Torquemada,  the  premier 
li  took  the  responsibihty,  defied  the  wrath  of  Mikado 
and  Court,  signed  the  treaty,  and  then  proceeded  to 
confine  to  their  houses  the  daimios  of  Echizen,  Owari, 
Tosa,  and  Uwajima,  and  to  order  to  decapitation, 
exile,  or  imprisonment  all  who  opposed  his  will. 
The  net  of  fate  was  cast  over  the  whole  country  and 
soon  the  prisons  were  full.  Among  the  victims  to  the 
deathsman  were  Yoshida  Shoin  (teacher  of  Marquis 
Ito),  Hashimoto  Sanai,  Rai,  son  of  the  historian  Rai 
Sanyo,  and  nearly  forty  others,  men  of  genius  and 
leadership,  mostly  disciples  of  the  Oyomei  philosophy, 
li  despatched  an  embassy  to  America  to  confirm  the 
treaty,  and  —  we  write  it  in  May,  1007,  when  the 
cruis(^rs,  the  Chitose,  famous  under  Togo  in  the 
Russian  war,  and  the  Tsuhiba,  built  wholly  in  Japan 
by  Japanese,  lie  at  anchor  in  the  Hudson  River  — 
Katsu  Awa  navigated  the  Kanda  Maru  across  the 
Pacific  and  back,  and  this  within  five  years  after 
first  seeing  the  two  steamships  under  Perry's  flag, 
the  II.S.S.S.  Powhatan  and  SusqueMnna.  The  author 
having  seen  in  1850  the  launching  at  Philadelphia  of 
the  Susquehanna,  met  in  the  same  city  several  of  the 
members  of  premier  li's  embassy  in  1860. 

In  the  view  of  his  enemies,  li  was  "the  swaggering 
Prime  Minister."  A  noble  patriot,  he  foresaw  his 
country^s  needs  and  did  his  best.  Such  is  the  judg- 
ment of  scholars.     '^  Heaven's  ordination  baffles  the 


320  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

human"  is  the  pious  verdict  of  an  Imperial  prince 
and  of  those  Japanese  not  a  few,  who,  after  self- 
effacement,  bow  before  the  Mystery,  not  knowing  a 
Father.  A  daimio  of  the  old  type,  loyal  to  the 
Tokugawa,  who  had  always  had  charge  of  foreign 
affairs,  he  believed  in  the  Yedo  autocracy,  and  cared 
not  for  innovations.  He  had  no  idea  of  the  strength 
of  the  rising  sentiment  of  neo-Mikadoism. 

As  so  often  in  Japan,  the  sword  solved  the  problem. 
Despotism  was  tempered  by  assassination.  Attacked 
by  seventeen  Ronins,  March  23,  1860,  during  a  heavy 
snowstorm,  li  and  eight  of  his  train  lost  their  lives  in 
sudden  onslaught  of  men  who  considered  themselves 
instruments  of  Heaven's  vengeance.  In  a  fearful 
sword  battle,  the  sparks  of  crossed  swords  mingled 
with  the  falling  flakes.  Eight  of  the  attacking  party 
were  killed  or  died  of  wounds. 

In  Yedo,  brave  men,  with  noble  spirits  consecrated 
in  loyalty  to  a  tottering  institution  which  was  ruled 
on  the  inside  by  pampered  women,  who  were  wicked 
through  ignorance,  had  tried  to  maintain  the  pillars 
of  state  and  cope  with  the  situation.  Ando,  Tsushima 
no  Kami  (1819-1871),  followed  li  in  the  troubled 
succession.  He  hoped  to  restore  the  prestige  of  the 
shogunate  by  marrying  the  Mikado's  sister,  the  prin- 
cess Kadzu  no  Miya,  to  lyemochi.  With  splendor 
and  illumination  the  wedding  was  celebrated,  but  to 
so  low  an  estate  in  popular  fame  had  Tokugawa  fallen, 
that  the  whole  afTair  was  looked  on  as  the  extortion 
of  an  Imperial  hostage  to  compel  endorsement  of  the 


DIPLOMACY  AND  COMMOTION  321 

Camp's  arbitrary  measures.  Ando,  like  li,  was 
attacked  by  Ronins,  and  only  by  personally  using  his 
own  sword  with  effect  did  he  escape. 

After  a  troubled  life,  worn  out  by  the  harassing 
cares  of  State,  in  an  era  that  seemed  all  earthquake 
and  volcano,  lyemochi  fell  ill  and  died.  A  white- 
haired  lady  of  many  sorrows,  the  body  of  his  widow, 
cmcTged  in  19UG,  from  a  life's  retirement,  to  momen- 
tary publicity,  while  borne  to  the  rest  of  the  grave. 
She,  too,  was  one  of  the  martyrs  to  Japan's  pangs  of 
transformation;  costly,  yet  worth  the  pain. 

Echizen's  work,  begun  in  lSr)2,  as  Supreme  Ad- 
ministrator of  Affairs,  bridged  the  abyss  between  old 
and  new.  He  served  in  both  Yedo  and  Kioto,  as 
servant  both  of  the  shogun  and  Mikado,  holding  the 
reins  of  power  and  actually  the  chief  ruler  in  a  most 
critical  era.  There  were  clan  leaders  and  war  captains 
whose  names  blared  very  loudly  in  contemporary 
fame's  trumpet,  but  they  were  soon  to  fall  into  ob- 
livion. Echizen  was  the  true  patriot,  earnestly 
hoping,  like  our  own  Fillmore  and  Webster,  to  stave 
off  impending  civil  war.  In  both  cities,  Echizen  held 
in  (3heck  the  disorderly  elements.  He  was  loyal  to  the 
old  order,  while  yet  prophet  enough  to  see  the  resist- 
less new  era  that  was  inevitably  coming. 

Echizen  had  among  his  near  advisers  such  men  as 
Yuri  Kinmasa  and  Yokoi  Heishiro.  The  former,  the 
Thomas  Jefferson  of  Japan,  penned  with  his  own 
haad  the  "Charter  Oath"  of  the  Mikado  in  1868, 
intended  as  a  State  Rights  document  and  aimed  at 


:1 


322  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

the  centralizing  clan-combination  which  has  so  long, 
and  even  in  our  late  days  of  the  twentieth  century, 
dominated  the  Government  in  Tokio.  Later,  with 
consummate  skill,  he  ordered  the  finances  of  the  new 
Imperial  State,  when  it  came  into  being.  Yokoi,  as 
adviser  to  the  young  leaders  of  the  coup  d'etat  of 
January  3,  1868,  helped  to  guide  the  ship  of  State 
grandly  through  the  rocks  and  billows.  He  proposed 
the  elevation  of  the  outcasts  to  citizenship  and  was  the 
first  to  plead  for  freedom  of  conscience  —  two  of 
Japan's  grandest  moral  triumphs,  now  incorporated 
in  the  constitution  of  1889,  in  which  she  leads  some 
European  nations.  Echizen  guarded  the  Imperial 
Palace,  for  as  in  all  ages,  since  645  a.d.,  to  possess  the 
Mikado's  person  and  to  give  legality  to  their  schemes 
was,  alike  to  the  plotters  and  to  the  patriots,  the 
supreme  aim. 

Now  in  late  summer,  1862,  began  the  alternating 
current  between  Yedo  and  Kioto  that  meant  the 
death  of  many.  Echizen,  made  Supreme  Director 
of  Affairs,  with  Yokoi  Heshiro,  attempted  the  moral 
cleansing  of  Yedo.  The  time  was  not  yet  ripe,  but  the 
daimios  were  released  from  maintaining  houses  of 
hostage  in  Yedo,  and,  with  their  families  and  clansmen, 
flocked  to  Kioto.  The  sacred  city  in  Yamato  seethed 
like  a  caldron. 

To  the  American  this  decade  of  gathering  clouds 
recalls  the  ten  years  previous  to  the  great  civil  war. 
Commotion  and  danger  were  varied  with  episode  so 
odd  as  to  call  for  laughter,  caricature,  and  street  songs. 


I 

? DIPLOMACY   AND  COMMOTION  323 

^^^U  could  Echizen  or  any  other  governor  keep  order 
^^^Hkhe  base  of  the  chariot"  with  all  the  elements  of 
^revolution  thus  focussed  in  the  Imperial  City  ?     The 
gayety  and  the  grimness  of  the  period  were  alike  illus- 
trated in  the  comedy  of  the  Ronin,  who  were  radical 
I      Mikado-reverencers.     They  entered  a  memorial  tem- 
'       pie,  cut  off  the  heads  of  the  wooden  images  of  the 
Ashikaga  regents,  and  pilloried  them  on  the  dry  bed 
of  the  river.     All  the  world  looked,  wondered,  trem- 
bled, laughed,  but  they  saw  the  point.     As  a  lover  of 
order  and  a  relative  of  the  Tokugawa,  while  fiercely 
progressive,  Echizen  in  a  rage  strove  in  vain  to  ferret 
out  the  perpetrators  of  the  insult  and  the  prophecy. 
^^^_Erom   dumb   show   with   wood,   the   Mikado-mad 
^^HpD  proceeded  to  redden  their  swords  in  the  blood 
^^oT merchants  known  to  have  traded  to  advantage  with 

Fy^^airy-faced  aliens,  and  to  set  their  severed  heads 
miity  gates.  One  apostle  of  progress,  Sakuma 
Shozan,  who  rode  on  a  horse  with  a  European  saddle 
and  bridle,  was  slain  for  his  temerity.  In  Yedo 
Mr.  Heusken,  the  young  Hollander,  Secretary  of 
Bj^Hpiarris,  was  cut  to  pieces  January  14,  1861,  by 
^^W(3  assassins'  swords.  The  envoys  and  legations 
evon  of  European  Powers,  though  rich  in  convenient 
shij)s  of  war  and  battalions  of  soldiers  which  they 
landed  at  Yokoliama  and  fixed  in  camp  for  safety, 
struck  their  flags  and  deserted  Yedo.  Mr.  Harris 
alone,  without  even  a  sentinel,  kept  the  stars  and 
stripes  floating  over  the  American  Legation  at  the 
Temple  of  Zempukuji. 


324  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Choshiu  tried  to  force  'Hhe  king's  hand,"  that  is,  to 
coerce  the  Court,  with  artillery,  rifles,  and  swords, 
both  at  long  range  and  in  hand-to-hand  fight.  March- 
ing upon  Kioto  August  20,  1864,  with  cannon,  Cho- 
shiu's  bands  attacked  the  palace,  and  a  battle  raged 
which  laid  most  of  Kioto  in  ashes.  ^'The  city  of  the 
ninefold  circle  of  flowers"  nearly  ''disappeared  in 
the  flames  of  a  war-fire."  Echizen,  Satsuma,  Aidzu, 
and  the  loyal  clansmen  beat  off  the  warriors  from  the 
southwest  who,  with  modern  arms,  were  at  one  and 
the  same  time,  from  their  forts  on  the  Straits  of 
Shimonoseki,  fighting  the  foreigners'  ships  and  in 
Kioto  were  seeking  to  seize  the  Son  of  Heaven.  On 
September  5,  eighteen  ships  of  war,  with  two  hundred 
and  eight  guns  and  7590  men,  under  the  flags  of  Great 
Britain,  France,  Holland,  and  the  United  States, 
bombarded  the  batteries,  and  on  the  seventh  cap- 
tured and  demolished  the  fortifications.  Of  the 
$3,000,000  indemnity,  exacted  and  finally  paid 
by  the  Imperial  Government  in  Tokio,  the  United 
States  received  $750,000,  but  afterwards  paid  this 
same  sum  back  to  Japan,  keeping  the  accumulated 
interest. 

Thus  straining  every  nerve,  this  clan  of  Choshiu 
hoped  to  rule  as  lords  paramount  of  Japan.  It  was 
at  such  a  mere  change  of  mats,  but  not  of  the  floor,  the 
overturning  one  despotism  to  set  up  another,  Choshiu 
or  Satsuma  instead  of  Tokugawa  —  that  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Charter  Oath  of  April  6,  1868,  were 
aimed. 


DIPLOMACY   AND  COMMOTION 


325 


The  shogun's  expedition  of  chastisement  against 
Choshiu  followed,  led  by  Echizen,  who  must  vindicate 
law.  But  the  punishment  was  not  great  nor  was 
pursuit  pressed.  All  men  w^re  beginning  to  see 
some  things  more  clearly.  Instead  of  divided  coun- 
cils, clan  feuds,  and  jealousies,  there  must  be  unity  in 
order  to  make  a  true  commonwealth  and  have  a 
government  suited  to  the  time.  If  Japan  was  to  be 
treated  as  a  sovereign  nation,  all  parties  and  all  clans 
must  unite.     At  these  parties  let  us  now  look. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

THE   NEW   GOVERNMENT   AND   THE   NEW   JAPAN 

The  two  great  factors  in  the  mighty  dualism  that 
inheres  in  all  schemes  of  government  are  centraliza- 
tion and  local  power.  In  preserving  the  happy  bal- 
ance, there  are  many  oscillations.  Whether  in 
monarchy,  oHgarchy,  democracy,  bureaucracy,  or 
so-called  autocracy,  these  centrifugal  and  centripetal 
forces  are  ever  at  work. 

Even  in  federal  government,  the  counterbalance 
of  national  supremacy  and  state  right  shows  that 
there  are  forces  as  continuously  operative  as  those 
which  produce  the  density  of  the  earth's  crust,  and 
of  which  earthquakes  and  volcanoes  are  some  of 
the  phenomena. 

In  Japan  are  the  solid  mountains  and  shore  profile, 
but  also  the  oft-heaving  earthquake  and  the  belch- 
ing volcano.  Apparently  in  static  calm,  the  land  is 
in  reality  in  perpetual  oscillation.  So,  also,  during 
the  ages  have  been  the  alternate  rise  and  fall  of  the 
scale  pans  in  which  the  Mikado's  authority  was 
weighed  against  that  of  local  rulers  and  powers. 
History,  since  the  eighth  century,  shows  a  weakening 
Court  with  an  over-organized  bureaucracy,  as  against 

326 


GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  NEW  JAPAN   327 

a  constantly  strengthening  military  and  a  growing 
feudal  power  in  the  provinces.  After  various  political 
earthquakes,  affairs  settled  to  the  static  calm  of 
duarchy,  with  twin  capitals,  Kioto  and  Kamakura. 
Then  the  temporary  mikadoate  concentrated  power 
with  the  Emperor,  but  only  for  a  little  while,  the 
break  in  the  political  strata  issuing  in  long  anarchy. 
When  again,  under  Nobunaga  and  Hideyoshi,  the 
nation  was  for  another  brief  term  or  years  nominally 
united  round  the  Throne,  we  find  under  lyeyasu, 
another  and  a  still  stronger  duarchy  in  form,  while 
really  it  is  monarchy,  centralized  in  Yedo.  Under 
the  outward  guise  of  feudalism  is  the  rule  of  one  man, 
the  Imperial  power  being  a  shadow.  Not  until  out- 
side pressure,  in  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
came  to  produce  the  greatest  of  all  Japan's  political 
upheavals,  did  the  age-old  strata  settle  to  give  the 
Throne  a  sure  foundation  and  make  in  the  Japanese 
nation  a  substantial  unity,  and  such  as  had  been 
never  before  known.  In  the  nature  of  the  case,  while 
lacking  force  applied  from  without,  there  could  be 
no  true  unity  or  monarchy.  Within  old  Japan 
duarchy  was  as  natural  as  the  centripetal  and  cen- 
trifugal forces  of  the  cosmos. 

lyeyasu  in  encouraging  learning  had  unwittingly 
provided  for  the  downfall  of  his  dynasty.  It  was  a 
scholar's  movement  that  abolished  duarchy  and 
feudalism  and  brought  in  the  modern  world  of  Japan.- 
Th(!  work  of  the  critics  and  historians  of  the  Mito 
scholars,  and  of  Rai  Sanyo,  who  revealed  the  foun- 


328  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

tain  of  power  in  Kioto,  the  study  of  archaeology,  the 
revival  of  the  study  of  pure  Shinto,  the  exasperation 
of  the  land- working  classes,  the  hostile  jealousy  of 
the  Mikado-reverencers,  and  the  desire  of  the  great 
daimios  to  share  in  the  wealth  which  trade  was 
bringing  to  Japan,  were  among  the  causes  leading  to 
national  upheaval  and  outburst. 

When  the  American  ''armed  embassy"  or  ''peace- 
ful armada"  sent  by  Fillmore  appeared,  the  Bakufu, 
itself  a  duarchy  made  up  of  an  outer  ministry  and  an 
inner  household,  i.e.  of  Cabinet  and  Boudoir,  was  not 
the  nation's  head,  or  the  supreme  power,  yet  in  all 
its  dealings  with  foreigners  it  pretended  to  be  so. 
Hence  the  continual  resort  to  tricks  and  subterfuges, 
even  to  the  forging  of  the  Mikado's  signature  to  the 
new  treaties,  in  order  to  prevent  foreigners  from 
finding  out  the  facts  that  the  shogun  was  not,  as  in 
the  documents,  "His  Majesty,"  or  the  Emperor. 
Perry,  the  United  States  authorities,  and  all  the  first 
diplomatists  were  deceived,  but  Townsend  Harris, 
the  American  Consul-General,  when  underlings  had 
laughed  in  his  face  at  the  idea  of  the  Mikado's  inter- 
ference, threatened  to  go  to  Kioto  in  person  to  find 
out  why  Yedo  delayed  to  sign.  Nevertheless  the 
Emperor  Komei  held  back  his  sign  manual. 

When  the  Yedo  premier,  Lord  li,  a  Fudai,  or  family 
vassal,  daimio  of  Hikone,  "took  the  responsibility," 
set  his  signature  to  the  document,  and  sent  an  embassy 
of  ratification  to  America,  he  was,  as  we  have  seen, 
promptly  assassinated,   his    retinue   being   attacked 


GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  NEW  JAPAN   329 

by  a  band  of  Ronins,  who  made  a  bloody  battle-field 
of  the  avenue  leading  to  the  castle.  Dying  outside 
his  yashiki,  his  estate  had  been  confiscated,  save  that 
the  hands  of  time's  clock  were  set  forward  by  published 
fiction,  so  that  he  might  expire  officially  within  the 
gates,  and  thus  his  heirs  save  their  inheritance. 

In  Kioto,  where  the  darkness  visible  of  ignorance 
reigned,  there  was  anger  and  wrath  at  the  shogun's 
fresh  usurpation  of  power  in  signing  the  treaties,  but 
the  Yedo  Government  stretched  forth  its  iron  hand 
from  the  castle  of  Nijo  upon  the  palace,  banished 
nobles,  filled  the  prisons  with  upright  Mikado-par- 
tisans, and  compelhvl  others  to  commit  hara-kiri. 
Soon  those  high-souled  assassins  and  incendiaries, 
who  have  since  become  Imperial  advisers,  kept  Yedo 
in  turmoil,  burning  legations  and  assassinating 
foreigners.  Their  immediate  aim  was  to  embroil  the 
shogun  with  foreigners,  who  would  send  armed  fleets 
to  avenge  their  murdered  citizens.  Though  few  out- 
side; Japan  could  understand  the  reason  for  such 
violence,  it  was  all  done  for  the  one  purpose,  cherished 
during  a  century,  of  toppling  down  the  shogunate, 
and  exalting  the  Mikado  to  supreme  power.  In 
retaliation,  the  Yedo  Government  encouraged  the 
Treaty  Powers  to  send  their  warships  to  bombard  the 
cities  of  Kagoshima  and  Shimonoseki,  belonging  to 
their  feudatory  vassals,  Satsuma  and  Choshiu,  whom 
the  shogun  was  impotent  to  coerce,  that  they  might 
be  humbled. 

There  was  a  clash  of  systems.     Men  from  countries 


330  JAPANESE  NATION  IN   EVOLUTION 

which  had  thrown  off  the  feudal  yoke  five  hundred 
years  before  came  into  colhsion  with  feudahsm  as 
a  hving  force.  Merchant  foreigners  insisted  on  riding 
horses  and  refused  to  dismount  before  the  daimios' 
processions  on  the  great  high-roads,  and  the  Bakufu 
could  not  compel  them.  Neither  could  the  shogun 
any  longer  force  their  great  feudatories  to  reside  in 
Yedo. 

In  despair,  the  Lord  of  Echizen,  relative  of  Toku- 
gawa,  was  called  to  be  the  Supreme  Administrator  of 
Affairs.  A  far-seeing  statesman,  he  read  the  signs 
of  the  times.  One  of  the  first  things  which  he  did 
was  to  abolish  the  custom  of  the  daimios  coming  to 
Yedo.  At  the  same  time,  the  shogun  prepared  to 
do  personal  homage  to  the  Emperor  in  Kioto.  Thus 
had  the  pendulum  swung  and  the  prestige  of  the 
Mikado  increased !  On  the  21st  of  April,  1863, 
ancient  custom  revived.  The  shogun,  head  of  the 
Tokugawa  house,  was  seen  kneeling  before  the  Mikado 
in  Kioto,  worshipping  'Hhe  Dragon  Countenance," 
and  receiving  a  cup  from  His  Majesty.  Besides 
enriching  Court  nobles  and  servants,  and  '' moisten- 
ing the  whole  populace  in  the  bath  of  his  mercy,"  — 
to  the  tune  of  five  thousand  strings  of  silver,  —  the 
shogun  restored  ancient  history.  This  lovely  pro- 
cedure helped  powerfully  to  reduce  the  financial  re- 
sources of  the  Bakufu  to  the  lowest  ebb. 

The  clans  now  flocked  to  Kioto,  which  became  the 
centre  of  intrigue  and  interests,  but  when  the  Bakufu 
attempted  the  second  time,  in  1866,  by  force  of  arms 


5W  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  NEW  JAPAN     331 

hastise  its  disobedient  vassal,  Choshiu,  which 
now  had  within  its  territory  steamers,  modern 
weapons,  American  rifles,  and  artillery,  and  Dutch 
books  of  military  science,  besides  plenty  of  money 
and  much  of  the^best  brain  and  valor  of  the  country, 
the  Yedo  troops  were  thoroughly  beaten,  and  the 
prestige  of  Yedo  was  irretrievably  ruined. 

Being  now  able  to  meet  together  and  take  council, 
ce  jealous  clans  stifled  their  jealousies  and  made 
their  quarrels.  They  formed  a  combination 
which,  in  Kioto,  after  manifold  checks  and  counter- 
checks, succeeded  in  compelling  Keiki,  the  Yedo 
shogun  (born  in  1837,  and  still,  in  1907,  living) 
to  resign.  On  the  9th  of  November,  1867,  in  a  noble 
manifesto,  this  last  of  the  shoguns  returned  his  dele- 
gated powers  into  the  hands  of  the  Emperor.  By 
this  time  public  opinion,  i.e.  of  the  gentry  of  the  clans, 
was  crystallizing  into  three  forms.  The  "  Federalists  " 
wanted  a  council  of  feudal  lords;  the  ''Imperialists" 
clamored  for  centralization;  and  the  "Unionists" 
looked  for  a  national  legislature  representing  all  the 
clans.  Keiki  resigned  because  he  was  under  the  im- 
pression that  a  general  council  of  daimios  was  to  be 
immediately  convened  at  Kioto,  to  deliberate  upon 
and  settle  the  basis  of  a  new  constitution. 

The  15th  of  December  was  the  day  fixed  for  the 
opcming  of  the  assembly.  Instead  of  peaceful  dele- 
gates, the  roads  were  full  of  marching  soldiers,  both 
of  the  Bakufu  and  from  the  daimios,  and  instead  of 
an  assembly  there  was  a  coup  d'etat,  and  the   Im- 


332  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

perialists  won  the  day.  On  the  3d  of  January,  1868, 
the  armed  men  of  the  combination  of  Satsuma, 
Choshiu,  Aki,  Owari,  and  Echizen  took  possession 
of  the  nine  gates  of  the  palace.  Allowing  only  those 
Court  nobles  whose  views  coincided  with  their  own 
to  approach  the  Emperor,  they  held  an  assembly  and 
procured  the  Imperial  decree  for  abolishing  the  Bakufu 
and  other  offices,  and  for  the  creation  of  a  new  Na- 
tional Government  based  on  ^^pubhc  opinion,"  i.e.  of 
the  military  classes.  Such  a  political  entity  as  that 
of  'Hhe  people"  was  not  in  view. 

Meanwhile  in  the  castle  of  Nijo,  Aidzu  being  the 
governor,  Keiki  with  his  large  army,  and  moved  by 
angry  advisers,  was  mortified  at  the  turn  which 
affairs  had  taken.  He  sent  a  memorial  to  the 
Court  which  showed  clearly  that  he  regretted  his 
resignation.  He  then  left  Kioto  with  his  army  to 
''calm  the  passions  of  his  followers,"  and  also  to 
occupy  Osaka  in  force,  and  thus  hold  the  sea- 
power  and  block  communications. 

Meanwhile  the  new  Government  was  established 
with  three  grades  of  officers,  to  be  filled  respectively 
by  an  Imperial  prince,  by  kuge  or  daimio,  and  by 
samurai,  with  eight  departments  of  administration, 
according  to  the  differentiations,  executive,  legisla- 
tive, and  deliberative.  When  the  shogun,  with  his 
followers,  attempted  to  reenter  Kioto  in  force,  to 
''drive  out  the  bad  Counsellors  of  the  Emperor," 
he  was  resisted,  and  by  this  move  made  himself  a 
choteki.     In  the  civil  war  which  followed,  the  loyal 


:W  GOVERNMENT  AND  THE  NEW  JAPAN  333 


effect 


forces  were  everywhere  victorious.  The  new  Gov- 
ernment was  established  in  Tokio.  Katsu  Awa  acted 
as  the  peacemaker  between  the  old  adherents  of 
the  Bakufu  and  the  men  of  the  new  regime.  The 
Oyomei  philosophy  proved,  with  the  right  person- 
alities, to  be  a  vital  factor  in  the  evolution  of  the 
nation. 

Vital  Christianity  won  its  initial  victory  in  this 
Dr.  Willis  of  the  British  Legation,  who  had 
fended  to  an  Eta  woman  wounded  at  Kobe,  was 
invited  to  Kioto,  and  used  his  professional  skill  as 
pirgeon  on  the  wounded   of   both  sides.     In   the 
campaign  at  Wakamatsu  in  October,  1808,  against 
contemptuous  neglect  of  the  wounded  and  other 
eval  methods  of  warfare,  he  made  energetic  and 
effective  protest,  and  clan  lines  were  wiped  out  in  a 
mon  humanity.     Dr.  Willis's  words  and  example 
e  new  law  for  Japan  and  gave  the  precedent  for 
the  treatment  of  Chinese  in  1895  and  of  Russians  in 
1904.     By  her  financial  aid,  by  her  courts  as  examples, 
by  the  conduct  of  her  honorable  merchants.  Great 
in  proved  herself  a  friend  of  Japan  in  her  earliest 
\d  and  continued  unswervingly  so,  until  the  logical 
ciilmination  was  made  in  the  Anglo-Russian  alliance 

1900  and  1905.     Japan  owes  the  British  people 
I 


^^need  j 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

FOREIGN   SERVANTS   AND   HELPERS 

The  outstanding  event  in  modern  Japan  which  far 
overtops,  in  moral  grandeur,  even  her  miHtary  cam- 
paigns, was  the  Charter  Oath  of  the  Mikado,  taken 
in  the  halls  of  Nijo  Castle  and  in  the  presence  of  the 
lords,  both  of  the  Court  and  of  the  land,  on  the  6th 
of  April,  1868.  The  Emperor  was  then  fourteen  years 
of  age.  The  words  put  into  his  mouth  and  uttered 
before  gods  and  men  were  carefully  weighed  and 
chosen  beforehand,  in  what  would  be  called  in  Amer- 
ica, a  caucus.  Their  final  form  was  from  the  pen  of 
Yuri  Kinmasa  of  Echizen. 

The  object  of  this  solemn  act  was  to  make  a  nation; 
that  is,  to  secure  a  union  of  interests,  to  allay  the 
jealousies  of  the  clans,  and  to  follow  as  closely  as 
possible  the  ideal  constitution  of  the  nations  of  the 
West.  More  immediately,  it  was  intended  to  prevent 
any  one  clan,  such  as  Satsuma  or  Choshiu,  or  a  com- 
bination of  clans,  from  being  the  dominating  factor 
in  the  new  Government. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  end  in  view  was  not  fully 
realized,  for  instead  of  the  Government  being  made 
up  of  able  men  chosen  in  justice  and  proportion  from 

334 


FOREIGN  SERVANTS  AND  HELPERS  335 

clans,  the  three  clans  of  Satsuma,  Choshiu,  and 
Tosa  secured  virtual  possession  of  the  Government 
and  held  it  until  our  time,  even  within  the  twentieth 
century.  The  Mikado's  promise  was  not  really 
fulfilled,  even  in  the  form  of  granting  a  written 
constitution,  until  1889,  and  then  only  under  long  and 
severe  pressure  that  often  threatened  explosion.  In 
rhetoric  and  traditional  ortiiodoxy,  the  constitution 
is  ''the  gift  of  the  Emperor  to  his  people."  In  actual 
fact,  it  is  the  result  of  twenty-one  years  of  unceasing 
striiggle  and  demand  of  earnest  opposers  of  oligarchy 

the  Imperial  promise  be  fiilfillcMl. 
he  of  the  most  imi)c)rtant  of  the  five  clauses  of  the 

was,    that    intellect    and    learning    should    be 

t  for  throughout  the  world  in  order  to  establish 

oundations  of  the  empire. 

s  was  simply  legalizing  what  had  been  begun 
Tokugawa.  In  18G3,  men  of  war  had  been 
ordered  from  Holland  and  Messrs.  Enomoto,  Aka- 
matsu,  Uchida,  and  others  were  sent  thither  as  stu- 
dents of  naval  science.  They  returned  in  18(58  in  the 
mo  Maru,  most  of  them  becoming  officers  of  the 
navy.     Sakuma  Chozan  was  the  first  Japanese  who 

y  urged  that  foreigners  be  invited  to  come  to 
and  teach  the  arts  and  sciences  of  the  West, 

men  of  Echizen  early  held  similar  ideas.  The 
Yedo  Government  had.  already  employed  engineers 
and  military  instructors.  A  telegraph,  lighthouses, 
ships  of  war,  and  various  manifestations  of  the  new 
't  were  already  visible.     It  was  in  the  view  of  the 


.ICV   T  J   . 

an(i  n 


336  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Imperial  oath,  also,  that  native  students  should  be 
sent  abroad.  Some,  indeed,  had  surreptitiously 
already,  under  assumed  names,  visited  Europe  and 
America.  Among  them  were  Ito,  Inouye,  Terashima, 
and  others  who  have  since  become  famous.  In 
America,  Rutgers  College,  at  New  Brunswick,  N.J., 
was  at  first  the  point  of  concourse.  The  number  of 
young  men  and  women  who  have  studied  abroad, 
taking  longer  or  shorter  courses,  may  be  tens  of 
thousands. 

Under  the  Charter  Oath,  not  fewer  than  five  thou- 
sand salaried  foreigners,  men  and  women,  including 
about  twelve  hundred  American  teachers,  experts 
in  their  several  callings,  were  brought  to  Japan  before 
the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century.  I  believe 
myself  to  have  been  the  first  one,  called  out  under  this 
oath  and  its  provisions,  to  come  from  a  foreign  country 
to  Japan.  Since  civil  war  almost  immediately  broke 
out  after  the  coup  d'etat  in  Kioto,  no  steps  were  taken 
at  first,  but  in  the  spring  of  1870  Echizen,  who,  being 
a  relative  of  the  shogun,  yet  loyal  to  the  Emperor, 
having  already  sent  students  abroad,  made  applica- 
tion for  a  staff  of  five  Yatoi  —  a  military  instructor, 
a  mining  engineer,  a  medical  doctor  and  surgeon,  a 
teacher  of  the  English  language,  and  a  college  gradu- 
ate, one  proficient  in  natural  science,  who  could  also 
train  up  teachers  and,  as  the  words  of  the  appoint- 
ment ran,  '^organize  schools  on  the  American  prin- 
ciple." No  Mom  Bu  Sho,  or  Department  of  Educa- 
tion, was  as  yet  organized. 


FOREIGN  SERVANTS  AND  HELPERS  337 

those  sought  for  or  appointed,  Captain  Frank 
Brinkley,  the  well-known  lexicographer,  editor,  and 
author  of  the  Oriental  Series,  then  in  Japan,  and  an 
officer  in  the  Tenth  British  Regiment,  was  appointed 
military  instructor,  but  did  not  get  to  Fukui,  being 
retained  by  the  central  Government  in  Tokio  as 
instructor  in  artillery  theory.  Mr.  Alfred  Lucy,  an 
luiglish  gentleman  from  Birmingham,  was  for  some 
months  in  Fukui  before  my  arrival. 

The  offers  of  positions  for  mining  engineer  and 
physician,  when  made  in  America,  went  begging.  The 
salary  was  generous,  but  no  life  insurance  company 
in  the  United  States  would,  except  at  heavy  premium, 

Bsure  thi'  life  of  any  one  going  into  the  interior  of 
An,  for  the  feudal  system  was  still  the  form  of 
ftty  and  the  Ronin  was  in  the  land, 
[■reached  Fukui,  March  4,   1871,  and  began  my 
K.    The  Union  Pacific  Railway  had  just  been  fin- 
islicd  across  the  continent,  the  scalping  Indians,  as 
conductor's  scalpless  cranium  bore  witness,  still 
ed  the  plains,  and  the  side-wheel  w^ooden  steam- 
ok  twenty-nine  days  to  carry  one  between  the 
en  Gate  and  Fujiyama  of  Ainu  name, 
ese  helpers  of  the  Japanese,   who  came   from 
rica,  from  every  nation  in  Europe,  and  from  more 
one  in  Asia,  were  called  in  popular  language 
cUoi,  or  hired  aliens,  and  later  o  yatoi.     They  were 
m-y  varied  lot  of  people,  and  the  conceit  of  some, 
wno  knew  nothing  of  native  history  and  imagined 
selves  to  be  the  especial  favorites  of  the  Japanese, 


338  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

was  vast  and  vaporous.  When  they  realized  the 
exact  facts  as  to  their  status  and  that  their  employers 
would  give  them  no  power  whatever,  often  withhold 
ing  even  the  cooperation  necessary  for  mutual 
success,  they  were  alternately  irritated  and  humbled, 
and  some  went  home  in  wrath  or  disgust.  Those  in 
whom  was  the  spirit  of  modesty  and  service  succeeded 
grandly  and  were  happy  every  hour  in  their  congenial 
toil,  proud  of  their  opportunity  of  coworking  with 
such  promising  pupils.  When  through  their  ^'con- 
tract," they  were  loath  to  leave,  despite  the  call  of 
home.  Such  servants  of  their  fellow-men  felt  it  to 
be  the  honor  of  their  lives  to  have  served  Japan  and 
have  ever  afterwards  cherished  pleasant  memories. 

The  reverse  of  a  true  picture  thus  painted  is  seen 
in  vanity,  incompetence,  an  overbearing  spirit,  lack  of 
tact  and  sympathy,  drunkenness,  immorality,  or  other 
personal  faults  and  failings  joined  to  national  pecul- 
iarities, and  set  over  against  the  pig-headed  obstinacy, 
the  mulishness  of  ignorance,  and  the  vulgarity  of  the 
upstart  natives.  Many  of  the  men  put  in  office  and 
in  charge  of  delicate  and  valuable  machinery  were 
the  mere  puppets  of  chance,  lacking  the  first  elements 
of  the  modern  discipline  of  science,  and  the  care  and 
habits  necessary  to  success  in  managing  railways, 
lighthouses,  telegraphs,  and  such  enterprises  as  were 
higher  in  scope  and  requirement  than  clansmen's 
duties  or  political  henchmen's  obligations.  The 
astonishingly  frequent  change  of  office-holders  showed 
how  fierce  was  the  struggle  for  Government  plunder 


FOREIGN  SERVANTS  AND  HELPERS  339 

among  the  hungry  aspirants.  How  the  pubhc  crib 
could  bear  the  assault  of  so  many  eager  to  be  fed,  was 
one  of  the  things  to  be  wondered  at. 

Yet,  on  the  whole,  the  failings  of  both  sides  must 
be  freely  confessed.  The  yatoi  was  in  the  main  a 
creditable  figure  in  the  making  of  new  Japan.  If  one 
lacks  faith  in  the  character  and  ability  of  these  "  hired 
servants"  of  the  Japanese,  who  spent  few  or  many 
years  of  their  most  efficient  manhood  in  Japan,  he 
has  but  to  consult  the  records  of  scientific  societies 
or  read  the  names  and  life  stories  in  the  biographical 
encyclopaedias  and  the  handbooks  entitled  '*  Who's 
Wlio."  In  many  cases,  the  yatoi  not  only  sowed  the 
first  seeds  of  knowledge,  but  they  created  new  sci- 
ences, being  original  investigators,  explorers,  or 
observers.  They  inaugurated  the  railroads,  tele- 
graphs, lighthouses,  the  building  of  steamships  and 
laboratories,  organizations  of  bureaus,  and  in  a 
thousand  ways  showed  the  Japanese  how  to  utilize 
th(^  forces  of  nature,  develop  the  national  resources, 
and  improve  the  condition  of  man.  They  could  not 
bestow  on  the  Japanese  their  superb  mental  powers, 
—  the  Creator's  gifts  were  not  theirs,  —  but  they  did 
point  the  way.  In  thousands  of  souls  they  kindled 
sacred  fire.  They  brought  the  seed,  and  the  natives 
have  raised  the  flower.  They  scattered  the  grain,  and 
tlu;  Japanese  have  reaped  the  harvest.  ''The  foreign 
employe  is  the  creator  of  New  Japan,"  is  the  verdict  of 
Basil  Hall  Chamberlain. 

Noble  are  the  records  of  Pumpclly  in  mining,  of 


340  JAPANESE  NATION    IN  EVOLUTION 

Bmnton  in  lighthouse  engineering,  of  Brinkley  in 
illuminating  public  opinion,  of  Knipping  in  meteor- 
ology and  mapping  the  routes  of  storms,  of  Scott  in 
elementary  education,  of  Simmons  and  Wigmore  in 
unearthing  the  private  law  of  Japan,  of  Wagner 
in  improving  mechanical  and  keramic  possibilities, 
of  House  and  Mason  in  music,  of  Divers,  teacher 
of  Takemine  and  Shimosa  in  chemistry,  of  Milne  in 
initiating  the  science  of  seismology,  of  Lyman  in 
revealing  true  geology  and  saving  millions  of  dollars 
in  being  lost  in  foolish  experiments,  of  Morse  in 
opening  from  the  soil  the  treasures  of  archaeology, 
of  Meckel  in  training  officers  in  military  science,  of 
Douglas  in  educating  Togos,  of  Boissonnade,  Bous- 
quet,  Bertin,  and  others  in  the  brilliant  staff  of 
Frenchmen,  and  of  Baeltz  and  Scriba  in  anatomy, 
physiology,  and  ethnology.  The  stories  of  scores  of 
others  whose  names  it  seems  shame  and  outrage  not 
to  mention,  show  that  Japan  has  incurred  a  debt  that 
it  is  very  questionable  if  she  can  ever  repay,  ex- 
cept as  she  strives  to  make  the  whole  world  better. 

Many  of  these  yatoi  were  not  flatterers,  and  they 
scorned  to  be  such.  They  told  the  truth  and  refused 
to  be  domineered  by  official  ignorance  and  base  per- 
versity. Sometimes  they  withstood  to  their  faces 
those  who,  while  painfully  polite  on  the  surface,  were 
thieves,  brigands,  and  assassins  at  heart.  Perhaps 
these  yatoi  were  sometimes  brusque  and  lacking  in 
the  arts  of  a  courtier,  so  that  their  breasts  do  not 
show  the   decorations  showered  so  freely  on  those 


FOREIGN  SERVANTS  AND  HELPERS  341 

found  favor  with  their  employers.  Yet  it  is  to 
the  everlasting  credit  and  honor  of  the  typical  samu- 
ne  of  the  surest  proofs  of  the  power  of  the  Jap- 
e  to  continuously  progress,  and  an  earnest  of  their 
ultimate  success,  that  they  have  taken  gracefully  their 
medicine  of  criticism.  Lacking  in  physical  stature, 
perhaps  at  some  points  in  ethical  fibre,  they  may  be ; 
but,  in  greatness  of  spirit,  in  willingness  to  confess 
faults,  to  turn  about  and  do  the  right  thing  when  they 
see  clearly  their  duty,  they  have,  as  individuals  and 
as  a  nation,  no  superior  in  the  history  of  humanity. 

The  yatoi  found  a  nation  ready  to  go  to  school,  but 
who  made  the  Japanese  people  ready?  No  story  of 
salaried  aliens'  triumphs  would  be  complete  without 
mention  of  the  American  missionaries  who  entered 
as  early  as  1859,  and  took  hold  of  the  boys.  During 
our  Civil  War  and  after  it,  these  were  compelled,  by 
the  financial  weaknesses  of  their  societies  at  home, 
to  be  in  a  measure,  or  for  a  time,  yatoi.  They  seeded 
th(!  Japanese  mind,  as  a  field,  with  the  noblest  ideas 
in  ethics,  political  economy,  historical  development, 
and  told  the  secrets  of  national  prosperity  and 
democracy.  They  taught  in  the  first  schools  hundreds 
of  lads  who  afterwards  became  leaders,  and  have  been 
or  are  to-day  in  high  station.  In  these  youth,  the 
sacred  thirst  for  science,  history,  and  language  was 
raised.  They  drove  in  the  plough  beam  deep,  harrow- 
ing the  fields  and  getting  all  ready  for  the  day  of 
national  public  schools  and  the  secular  teachers 
who  came  after  1870. 


342  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

While  that  American  committee  of  four,  Williams, 
Verbeck,  Brown,  and  Hepburn,  had  virtually  the 
whole  field  to  themselves  in  ethics,  medicine,  and  sci- 
ence, another  committee  of  four  was  with  them  ''un- 
consciously binding  the  selfsame  sheaf."  These 
were  Iwakura,  a  Court  noble;  Okubo,  the  brain; 
Kido,  the  pen ;  and  Ito,  the  practical  manager  of  the 
Restoration  of  1868,  —  a  movement  which  meant  the 
evolution  of  the  Japanese  man  and  nation. 

When  the  new  Government  was  estabUshed  in 
Tokio,  it  was  increasingly  felt  that  the  feudal  system 
was  an  anachronism,  and  that  it  would  be  impossible 
to  use  the  new  motors  in  its  worn-out  machinery. 
The  four  great  clans,  Satsuma,  Choshiu,  Tosa,  Hizen, 
were  first  won  over  to  the  idea.  Then,  after  due 
consultation  and  consideration,  pondering  the  sub- 
ject in  all  its  relations,  withal  not  forgetting  the 
possible  necessity  of  unsheathing  the  sword  and 
letting  blood,  the  edict  went  forth  in  July,  1871,  from 
the  young  but  mighty  men  sitting  in  Tokio  in  the 
Emperor's  name,  that  feudalism  should  fall.  The 
daimios  were  ordered  to  give  up  their  castles,  lands, 
and  registers,  and  to  come  and  live  as  private  gentle- 
men in  Tokio.  The  samurai  were  to  relinquish  their 
hereditary  pensions,  receiving  in  return  enough  to 
support  them  for  a  few  years,  until  they  could  find 
employment  and  a  livelihood.  Society  was  reor- 
ganized on  the  basis  of  three  classes,  —  nobles,  gen- 
try, and  commons. 

This  was  the  great  renunciation,  and  I  was  witness 


FOREIGN  SERVANTS   AND  HELPERS  343 

In  nearly  three  hundred  castles,  in  the  autumn 
of  1871,  took  place  solemn  scenes  of  farewell  between 
lords  and  retainers.  On  the  first  Sunday  in  October, 
the  Lord  of  Echizen  called  his  three  thousand  samurai 
and  his  guest  into  the  castle  at  Fukui,  and,  after  due 
ceremonies,  read  an  address.  He  reviewed  briefly 
recent  events,  announced  the  Imperial  order,  and 
urged  his  late  loyal  followers,  accepting  graciously 
the  situation,  to  transform  personal  loyalty  into 
national  patriotism,  centring  all  heart  and  will  in 
tlu!  Emperor. 

was  a  sublime  and  moving  spectacle  to  see  that 
vasi  audience  of  two-sworded,   richly  dressed,  and 

est-faced  men.  They  were  proud  of  their  inheri- 
antl  their  privileges,  and  devoted  to  their  lord 
and  his  house,  yet  were  ready  to  lay  all  aside,  even 
income  and  office,  and  to  break  with  their  individual 
and  personal  past,  in  order  to  be  true  patriots,  worthy 
members  of  a  new  commonwealth.  Echizen  had 
l)een  seeded  with  new  thought  and  was  ready  for 
change.  Passing  out  of  the  castle  to  their  homes, 
these  heads  of  families  mostly  went  forth  to  earn 
th<}ir  own  livelihood.  Thus  Japan,  nourished  by 
feudalism,  as  the  growing  child  is  nursed  and  trained 
to  sturdy  manhood,  bade  farewell  to  a  faithful  ser- 
vant to  enter  upon  the  untried  and  unknown  era  of 
industrialism.  No  blood  was  shed  at  the  time,  but 
in  the  uprisings  and  protests,  even  to  the  Satsuma 
rebellion  of  1877,  put  down  with  fire  and  steel  on 
many  a  red  field,  we  see  how  hard  the  feudal  spirit 


344  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

died.  In  the  inner  counsels  of  the  Tokio  Govern- 
ment we  see  how  vigorous  it  is  in  its  resurrection. 

National  advancement  was  all  the  more  possible 
because  of  the  equalization  of  classes  and  the  up- 
raising of  the  new  humanity.  Very  soon  with  the 
uplifting  of  the  outcasts  was  the  bestowal  of  all 
national  privileges  upon  every  class.  The  army, 
navy,  courts,  schools,  avenues  of  promotion,  possi- 
bilities of  success  and  fame,  were  opened  uncondi- 
tionally to  all.  Manufacturer,  artisan,  merchant, 
scholar,  and  whoever  would  be  the  nation's  friend, 
might  compete  in  friendly  rivalry.  Now  rose  in  the 
cities  the  great  factories,  and  at  the  seaside  the  great 
shipyards,  while  all  over  the  land  were  extended  the 
iron  highway  and  the  electric  wires,  bringing  in  a  new 
era  of  swift  communication  and  profitable  indus- 
trialism. Through  foreign  commerce  the  nation  has 
been  enriched  twenty-fold. 

Of  these  yatoi,  or  servants,  I  believe  I  was  as  I 
have  said,  the  first  called  out  from  a  foreign  country 
(not  under  the  shogun  or  a  feudal  baron,  but)  under 
the  Imperial  Charter  Oath  of  1868.  I  reached 
Tokio,  January  2,  1871,  and  immediately  began  edu- 
cational work  in  the  Language  School,  now  the 
Imperial  University.  Leaving  Tokio,  February  16, 
by  way  of  Kobe,  Osaka,  Otsu,  Tsuruga,  I  reached 
Fukui  in  Echizen,  March  4,  being  busily  employed  in 
school  and  laboratory  and  in  training  of  teachers  until 
midwinter  of  1872.  By  this  time  I  had  seen  the  great 
defect  in  the  education  of  the  samurai,  from  which 


FOREIGN  SERVANTS  AND  HELPERS  345 

all  the  students  and  teachers  then  came.  It 
was  too  scholastic.  Manual  training  and  technical 
skill  and  the  application  of  science  to  immediate 
needs  was  the  crying  necessity.  I  addressed  a 
memorial  to  Mr.  Ogi  Takato,  first  Minister  of  the 
newly  formed  Mom  Bu  Sho,  or  Department  of  Edu- 
cation. He  at  once  called  me  to  Tokio  to  organize 
a  Polytechnic  School.  Happily  the  idea  grew  to 
larger  proportions  and  the  superb  Imperial  College 
of  ICngineering  resulted. 

This  noble  institution  has  been  wholly  served  by 
British  teachers.  Dr.  Henry  Dyer,  author  of  ''Dai 
Nippon:  A  Study  in  National  Evolution,"  presided 
during  ten  years,  being  succeeded  by  Dr.  Edward 
Divers,  among  whose  pupils  were  Drs.  Takamine  and 
Shimose,  of  fame  in  explosives.  There  are  now  hun- 
(h-eds  of  special  schools,  the  Higher  Technical  School 
in  Tokio  being  the  most  famous. 

The  general  scheme  for  a  national  system  of  educa- 
tion, planned  by  Dr.  Verbeck  and  elaborated  under  the 
ministry  of  Oki  Takato,  was  carried  out  under  the 
sup(;rvision  of  Dr.  David  Murray  and  Viscount 
Tanaka  Fujimaro.  Among  the  ablest  ministers  of 
education  is  the  present  incumbent,  Nobuaki  Makino, 
second  son  of  the  great  Okubo.  One  of  the  forces 
most  influential  in  the  development  of  right  ideas  and 
practices  has  been  the  Mei  Roku  Sha  (Society  of  the 
Sixth  Year  of  Meiji),  whose  discussions  and  criticisms 
have  kept  alive  noble  ideals  and  healthy  sentiments. 
Most  powerful  of  all  for  national  unity  have  been  the 


346  JAPANESE  NATION   IN   EVOLUTION 

Rescripts  of  the  Emperor,  notably  the  one  on  Edu- 
cation, issued  October  30,  1890,  which  is  read  fre- 
quently in  all  the  schools.  It  calls  for  the  practice 
of  the  noblest  virtues  in  daily  life,  and,  hke  a  father, 
the  Head  of  the  Nation  thus  exhorts  his  children :  — 

"Always  respect  the  Constitution  and  obey  the 
laws ;  should  emergency  arise,  offer  yourselves  to  the 
State  loyally  and  bravely;  and  thus  support  our 
Imperial  Throne  coeval  with  the  Heavens  and  the 
Earth.  So  shall  ye  be  not  only  Our  good  and  faithful 
subjects,  but  make  manifest  the  character  inherited 
from  your  ancestors." 

Many  Japanese  publicists  who  have  studied  and 
lived  long  in  the  Occident  are  frankly  telling  their 
people  that  if  they  live  up  to  the  spirit  of  the  Em- 
peror's Rescript,  they  have  little  to  borrow  from  the 
theology  or  philosophy  of  the  nations  of  the  West. 


CHAPTER  XX\' 

NEW  NATIONAL  ARMY  AND  NAVY 

E  idea  of  a  national  army  of  soldiers,  infused  with 
Ity  to  the  Emperor,  born  into  a  new  patriotism, 
educated  in  the  public  schools,  and  made  democratic 
by  the  camaraderie  of  conscription,  that  should  level 
all  class  distinctions  while  in  the  ranks,  was  born  in 
th£  parlor  of  Dr.  Verbeck,  at  the  great  conclave  of 
men  held  in  his  house  in  July,  1870. 
t  of  Satsuma,  the  greatest  of  the  war-loving 
,  as  was  meet,  have  come  forth  in  overwhelming 
rity  the  men  whose  names  shine  on  deck  and  field 
aii(!  are  known  to  the  world.  If  the  national  navy 
long  called  "a  Satsuma  Fleet,"  and  if  the  high 
choice  commands  in  the  army  were,  for  a  genera- 
tion or  more,  held  chiefly  by  Satsuma  men,  there 
p  reason  for  it.  This  grand  body  of  clansmen 
p  led  by  men  trained  in  the  Oyomei  philosophy. 
For  the  sake  of  their  country,  under  the  influence'  of 
Saigo  in  18G5,  they  buried  their  feuds  with  Choshiu 
and  other  clans  and  united  with  them  for  the  nation's 
good. 

This  act  was  a  distinct  forward  step  in  national 
evolution.     Abandoning  definitely  their  long-cher" 

347 


348  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Lshed  ambition  to  set  a  Satsuma  chieftain  in  the  place 
of  the  Tycoon  in  Yedo,  they  bore  the  bloody  brunt  of 
the  Civil  War  of  1868-1869,  but  were  disappointed 
in  the  rewards.  In  bad  temper,  they  left  Tokio  and 
went  home.  Nevertheless,  at  the  call  of  the  Emperor, 
they  fiung  their  sulks  and  grudges  into  obhvion.  In 
1870,  alertly  responding  to  the  Mikado's  invitation, 
they  began,  with  four  regiments  of  infantry,  the  new 
invincible  army.  In  that  nucleus  of  Oyama's  host 
of  1904,  most  of  the  famous  names  of  his  division 
commanders  are  to  be  found.  By  initiating,  with 
Echizen,  the  enterprise  of  sending  youths  to  study  in 
Europe,  Satsuma  soon  trained  officers  ready  to  apply 
modem  science  to  the  art  of  war,  in  sea  or  land  power. 

The  Emperor  appealed  to  all  classes  and  conditions 
of  men  to  form  a  national  army,  the  first  since  the  era 
of  Ainu  wars.  His  invitation  was  an  emancipation. 
The  privilege  of  enlistment  to  the  peasant  boy  came 
as  a  patent  of  nobility  handed  him  by  his  monarchy, 
above  all  on  earth  beloved.  It  made  knights  of 
commoners  and  samurai  of  the  street  man  and 
villager.  It  transformed  clodhoppers  into  self-re- 
specting gentlemen.  To  serf  and  pariah  it  was  the 
liberty  cap,  for  Eta  and  hi-nin  were  made  citizens  in 
October,  1871. 

Occidental  experts,  who,  when  Japan  confronted 
first  China  and  then  Russia,  groped  after  knowledge 
through  statistics,  and  then  ventured  upon  prophecy, 
failed  miserably.  Though  confronted  with  a  wealth 
of  pragmatic  facts,  they  were  confounded  because 


■33F 


THE  NEW  NATIONAL  ARMY   AND  NAVY     349 


ignorant  of  the  quality  of  Japanese  manhood.  "One 
rudely  drop  of  manly  blood  the  surging  seas  out- 
weighs." Even  aliens,  long  dwelling  on  the  soil,  who 
judged  Japan  by  those  cowardly  ruffians  who  had  cut 
from  behind,  knew  not  the  splendid  qualities  of  the 
farmer  boy.  The  fruit  of  a  thousand  years  of  dis- 
cipline in  industry,  hardship,  instinctive  obedience, 
lay  behind  the  new  conscript.  Three  centuries  of  the 
revelation  of  Bushido  had  fired  his  imagination.  lie 
would,  he  must,  imitate  the  ancient  hero.  To  drink 
the  cup  of  cold  water  in  parting,  to  don  the  white 
kimono  of  the  corpse  arrayed  for  burial,  to  say  the 
farewell  at  the  cemetery  before  the  tombs  of  his 
anccnstors,  to  concentrate  all  inherited  loyalty  from 
his  father's  local  lord  to  the  Incarnation  of  the 
nation,  and  then  to  die  as  the  Emperor's  samurai  or 
servant,  was  his  consuming  ambition.  The  Japanese 
became  a  people  with  an  oriflamme.  In  1877,  after 
their  bayonets  had  crossed  with  the  sword  blades  of 
the  rebel  Saigo's  samurai,  these  peasant  soldiers 
laughed  at  the  idea  of  being  afraid  of  Chinese  or 
Russians.  On  the  return  march  to  barracks,  every 
nicked  and  bent  bayonet  was  hailed  as  a  pledge  of 
future  victory.  What  the  sword  had  been  to  the 
samurai,  the  rifle  and  its  equipment  became  to  the 
conscript. 

Unique  in  the  history  of  Asia  was  the  intellectual 
equipment  of  the  new  soldier  under  the  banner  of  the 
rising  sun.  Every  man  could  read  and  write.  Each 
private   had   been   in  the  public   scliools   botiun   by 


350  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

American  teachers.  He  continued  his  brain  and  heart 
culture  in  the  barracks.  He  built  up  his  body  by 
better  food,  scientific  exercise,  good  habits,  and  a 
grandly  regular  life.  His  life  was  enriched  by  new 
friendships  and  mental  horizons.  He  saw  the  world 
from  other  points  of  view  than  the  paddy  field  and 
the  charcoal  fire.  He  entered  the  national  hall  of 
fame.  In  his  soul  he  returned  the  greetings  from 
afar  of  those  who  had  waited  not  for  the  rising,  but  for 
the  risen  sun.  From  smacks  and  coasting  boats  the 
fisherman  graduated  to  ships,  that  besides  concen- 
trating in  their  war  power  the  science  of  ages,  called 
forth  for  their  use  and  mastery  the  noblest  faculties 
of  man.  From  junk  routine  and  manners  he  was 
promoted  to  a  school  of  life  that  eliminated  disease, 
added  to  his  weight,  stature,  appearance,  and  charac- 
ter, even  while  living  in  a  world  of  flaming  ideals. 
Those  Europeans  who  in  1904  worked  out  their  arm- 
chair strategy  with  the  official  reports  of  twelve- 
inch  guns  and  statistics,  in  the  last  new  Cyclo- 
pedia and  the  Statesman's  Year  Book,  could  cal- 
culate on  weight  of  iron  or  lead,  but  not  on  the 
specific  gravity  of  Japanese  humanity.  Not  with- 
out significance  is  it  that  the  ^^ monster  heroism" 
of  Port  Arthur  was  wrought  chiefly  by  the  Ninth 
Division,  of  soldiers  raised  in  a  region  where  the 
free  schools  established  were  among  the  very  first 
outside  the  Capital.  It  was  in  Echizen  that  the  new 
scientific  and  ethical  and  humanitarian  spirit,  that 
demanded   hygiene   and   education,  first  started  in 


THE  NEW   NATIONAL  ARMY  AND  NAVY      351 


est  coast  and  thence  spread  throughout  the 
whole  of  old  Koshi. 

The  dogmas  lying  behind  the  embattled  hosts  and 
the  steel  navies  of  Europe  and  the  age-old  claim  of 
China  to  universal  sovereignty  were  the  real  hin- 
drances to  Japan's  legitimate  development.  Too 
well  the  Tokio  statesmen  knew  the  reluctance  of 
Occidental  diplomatists  to  see  a  new  world-power 
arise  in  Asia.  Apart  from  individual  opinions  and 
the  contemporaneous  concerts  of  the  Powers,  the 
Japanese  had  read  history  and  realized  what  were  the 
dogmas  of  the  dual  political  orthodoxy  which  they 
must  overthrow.  Their  own  memory-scar  of  the 
seventeenth  century  was  fresh.  By  papal  bull,  it 
had  been  taught  that  the  world  belonged  to  the 
Iberian  Powers.  They  had  then  confronted  the 
dogma  proclaimed  in  Rome,  and  given  expression  in 
Europe  by  the  Inquisition  and  Spanish  Armada; 
in  America  by  Cortez  and  Pizarro ;  and  in  the  Far 
East  in  the  Spanish  conquest  of  the  Philippines. 
Through  Hideyoshi  and  lyeyasu,  and  at  Shimabara, 
the  Japanese  had  given  to  this  dogma,  when  applied 
to  them,  their  answer  in  fire  and  blood. 

In  the  nineteenth  century,  when  intent  on  realizing 
their  ideals  of  political  and  social  equality  with  the 
rest  of  the  world,  the  Japanese  leaders  were  confronted 
by  three  theories,  the  ruling  ideas  of  the  age,  two  of 
which  had  been  over  and  over  again  embodied  and 
made  real  on  Asiatic  soil  by  armed  force  in  war  and 
blood,  and  the  seizure  of  territory.      In  1870  large 


352  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

parts  and  whole  nations  of  Asia  were  conquered 
peoples  dwelling  under  European  flags.  The  process 
of  subjugation,  under  the  name  of  '' conquest/' 
'^protectorate,"  ''colonization,"  or  "spheres  of  influ- 
ence," was  going  on  apace.  Even  "the  break-up  of 
China"  was  talked  of,  published,  and  believed  to  be 
imminent. 
These  three  theories,  in  order  of  their  age,  were :  — 

1.  The  Chinese  dogma  of  Whang  Ti,  or  Universal 
Sovereignty.  In  this  view,  China  was  the  Middle 
Kingdom,  and  her  Emperor  the  sole  Son  of  Heaven. 
Hence,  all  surrounding  or  neighbor  nations  were  and 
could  be  only  tributaries  or  vassals.  Before  the 
throne  in  Peking,  all  envoys  must  make  the  kowtow 
or  nine  prostrations,  and  all  questions  were  to  be 
settled  according  to  precedent  and  law  of  the  theo- 
cratic dynasty  of  Great  China.  International  Law 
was  Pekingese  law;  that  is,  what  China  chose  to 
make  it.  So  long  as  this  highly  civilized  State  was 
surrounded  entirely  with  pupil  or  subject  nations, 
such  a  dogma  was  orthodoxy.  Nevertheless,  in  the 
system,  Japan  was  the  one  insurgent.  Accepting 
China's  calendar,  she  refused  to  acknowledge  vassal- 
age, and  the  name  of  an  Ashikaga,  who  accepted  the 
title  of  0,  or  king,  from  the  Emperor  of  China,  is 
execrated,  while  that  of  Hideyoshi,  who  scorned  the 
tender,  is  honored  and  his  tomb  has  been  rebuilt  in 
splendor. 

2.  The  European  notion,  also  a  fixed  doctrine, 
based  on  Portuguese,  Dutch,  British,  French,  Russian, 


THE  NEW  NATIONAL  ARMY  AND  NAVY      353 

German  precedents  of  occupation,  is  that  Asia, 
like  Africa,  existed  for  exploration  or  conquest  by 
Europeans.  Asiatics  were  to  gratify  the  desires  of 
Western  nations,  swell  their  revenues,  pay  their  debts, 
or  at  least  to  furnish  a  market.  Native  rights  and 
privileges  were  not  to  be  measured  with  those  of  the 
conquering  white  man. 

3.  The  American  doctrine,  established  by  the 
people  and  vital  precedents,  long  before  Government 
utterances  or  action.  From  the  departure  of  the 
first  ship,  bound  for  Asia  and  sailing  under  the 
d  States  flag,  in  1784,  within  six  months  after 
"treaty  of  peace  with  Great  Britain,  this  doctrine 
part  of  the  American  consciousness.  It  is,  that 
eople  of  Asia,  being  human  and  brothers,  besides 
existing  for  honora})le  trade  and  interchange  of  ideas 
commodities,  are  to  he  healed,  helped,  taught,  and 
to  the  best  ideas  of  the  whole  race.  The  Ameri- 
merchant,  sailor,  explorer,  whaler,  teacher, 
ician,  missionary,  went  out  with  this  idea.  In 
spite  of  local  discords,  of  municipal  congestion,  of 
lie  elements,  the  prejudices  engendered  because 
imentalism  has  changed  to  economic  rivalry, 
and  the  new  point  of  view  natural  to  two  armed 
Powers,  this  is  still  the  American  doctrine. 

None  knew  better  than  the  Japanese  leaders  and 

(^e  recognized  more  clearly  the  mark  made  on  the 

d  by  the  non-political  American  merchants,  and 

le   philanthropic   teachers   and    missionaries,    with 

schools,  dispensaries,  and   liospitals,   for  they 


^^e  tr 
exist 

Ml 

spite 

and 
Pow( 

N( 

m 

thpjr    schools, 


354  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

had  these  object  lessons  on  their  own  soil  and  were 
long  familiar  by  report  with  the  same  in  India  and 
China.  Moreover,  most  of  those  most  intelligent  in 
these  matters,  and  several  of  the  statesmen  of  highest 
ability,  had  been  themselves  for  years  under  the  direct 
personal  training  of  the  American  missionaries. 
Not  only  such  able  men  as  Okuma  and  Soyeshima, 
then  in  the  first  modern  cabinet  in  Tokio,  but  over 
one-half  of  those,  and  the  more  important  half,  of 
the  members  of  the  Imperial  embassy  of  1872,  had 
been  trained  in  modern  knowledge  by  Verbeck, 
while  scores  of  others  whose  names  are  now  famous 
were  taught  by  Brown,  Hepburn,  or  Williams.  It 
was  this  body  of  inquirers,  wiser  and  sadder,  that 
after  traversing  the  world  in  1872-1874,  turned 
Japan  permanently  away  from  China  to  face  the 
Occident. 

Against  each  one  of  these  three  structures  of  dogma 
the  Japanese  were  to  be  brought  face  to  face  by  the 
logic  of  events.  With  two  they  were  to  come  into 
armed  collision:  with  the  first,  the  Chinese,  for 
its  destruction ;  with  the  second,  the  Russian,  for  its 
halt  and  arrest;  with  the  third,  the  American,  to 
find  behind  local,  abnormal,  and  temporary  conditions, 
the  solid  American  creed,  based  not  on  sentiment 
alone,  but  on  old  ideas  of  justice  and  the  affirmations 
of  law. 

The  victory  over  ^Tathay,"  in  1904-1905,  which 
wiped  out  forever  the  effete  Chinese  dogma  of  uni- 
versal  sovereignty,    was   essentially   moral,   though 


THE  NEW  NATIONAL  ARMY   AND  NAVY     355 

g  in  war.  The  war  of  1894  began  in  1868,  when 
Japan  discarded  Chinese  ideas  for  a  beginning  of 
representative  government,  and  continued  when  in 
1871  she  dropped  the  Chinese  or  lunar  for  the  Occi- 
dental or  solar  calendar.  Step  by  step  the  Tokio 
Government  proceeded  to  assert  the  legitimate 
rights  of  Japan,  by  annexing  formally  and  incor- 
porating in  the  Empire  what  by  blood,  language, 
and  history,  had  long  been  a  part  of  Japan.  Yezo 
was  colonized  and  given  scientific  reconnoissance  and 
survey  by  a  band  of  American  scientific  men.  Nego- 
tiations were  opened  with  Russia  concerning  Sag- 
halien  and  the  Kurile  Islands.  The  last  vestige  of 
dual  sovereignty  in  Asia  was  abolished  when  the 
kinglet  of  the  Riu  Kiu  Isles  was  brought  from  Napa 
to  the  Tokio  capital  and  made  a  marquis,  while  Shuri 
Castle  was  garrisoned  by  Imperial  troops.  Duly 
notifying  China,  they  began  in  the  Okinawa  Ken, 
th(!  task  of  sadly  needed  reform  in  Government  in 
Riu  Kiu — the  old  Eternal  Land,  of  the  Kojiki,  and 
the  modern  country  of  perpetual  afternoon. 

When  later,  a  Riu  Kiuan  vessel  was  wrecked  on  the 
Eastern  or  savage  coast  of  Formosa,  over  which  China 
n(>ver  claimed  sovereignty,  and  its  crew  murdered  by 
the  red-skinned  head-hunters,  redress  was  asked  for. 
Tlie  Tokio  government  sent  General  Saigo  to  chastise 
the  murderous  tribesmen,  who  were  alleged  to  be  can- 
nibals. The  Peking  Court,  stirred  up  by  the  insinua- 
tic>ns  of  aliens  jealous  of  the  rising  empire,  ordered  the 


356  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

In  the  diplomatic  battle  that  ensued,  Japan 
planted  herself  squarely  on  the  ground  of  the  world's 
international  law  and  won.  Indemnity  was  paid, 
and  Japan  evacuated  the  island  with  honor  —  to 
come  back  as  master  twenty-one  years  later.  Her 
seven  hundred  sons  who  perished  in  the  expedition 
were  given  honorable  resting-place  in  one  of  the  very 
first  of  Japan's  national  cemeteries  at  Nagasaki. 

The  period  of  Japanese  national  development  from 
1874  to  1894  has  been  quite  fully  treated  in  ''The 
Mikado's  Empire,"  and  cannot  be  even  sketched  in 
this  little  volume.  The  chief  events  were  internal. 
They  were  chiefly  phenomena  of  the  struggle  between 
the  old  and  the  new  principles  and  forces,  such  as  the 
great  Satsuma  rebellion  of  1877,  and  several  smaller 
uprisings  previous  to  this,  the  assassination  of  some 
of  the  Mikado's  ablest  statesmen,  the  long  struggle 
for  the  freedom  of  the  press,  and,  more  important 
than  all,  the  agitation  in  favor  of  a  written  constitu- 
tion, in  fulfilment  of  the  Imperial  Charter  Oath  of 
1868. 

On  October  12,  1881,  the  Emperor  promised  to 
establish  a  Parhament  in  1890.  Such  men  as  Goto, 
Yuri,  Kataoka,  Soyeshima,  Okuma,  and  Itagaki 
deserve  equal  honor  with  those  to  whom  the  fram- 
ing of  the  instrument  was  entrusted,  and  whose 
breasts  are  ''smeared  with  gold."  After  due  study 
and  debate  in  the  Privy  Council,  the  Constitution,  in 
sixty-six  articles,  was,  amid  much  popular  rejoicing, 
proclaimed   on   February    11,    1889.    To   the   keen 


THE  NEW   NATIONAL  ARMY  AND  NAVY     357 


disappointment  of  some  of  the  best  men  in  the  Empire, 
the  model  chosen  for  Japan  was  Prussia  rather  than 
England.  The  ministers  are  responsible,  not  to  the 
Diet,  but  to  the  Throne.  The  basis  of  Government 
in  Japan  is  upon  tradition  and  conquest  and  the 
''fixed  expenditures"  make  the  Diet  a  Parliament  in 
name  rather  than  in  fact.  Nevertheless,  the  Consti- 
tution of  1889  is  a  noble  instrument,  and  under  its 
provisions  the  nation  has  reached  an  astonishing 
degree  of  prosperity.  Unless  militarism  paralyze 
moral  progress,  the  freedom  of  the  people  is  sure  to 
liroaden  and  deepen,  and  law-abiding  democracy, 
under  forms  of  Imperialism,  come  to  bless  the  mil- 
lions of  Everlasting  Great  Japan. 

In  this  work  on  the  nation  in  evolution,  I  deal  but 
slightly  with  Japan's  ''phenomenal"  activities  and 
de\'elopment  of  material  resources  (hiring  the  nearly 
forty  years  of  their  inception,  which  I  witnessed. 
The  reason  is  plain.  From  a  historical  point  of 
view  there  is  really  nothing  new  or  strange  in  the 
national  movements,  but  only  evolution.  The  Japan- 
ese have  done  what  their  genius  has  always  prompted 
th(!m  to  do.  They  are  not  only  the  most  improvable 
race  in  Asia,  but  possibly  even  in  the  world  —  the 
true  middle  term  being  "the  Orient"  and  "the  Occi- 
dent"—  words  whose  old  meaning  is  fading  away 
in  the  full  light  of  the  world's  opening  day  of  greater 
glory. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

PANOPLIED   JAPAN.      A   PUBLIC   SCHOOL  ARMY 

By  the  year  1894  Japan  was  a  panoplied  nation, 
able  to  defend  herself  and  assert  her  rights,  both 
against  Chinese  arrogance  and  the  robber-nations  of 
the  West.  A  new  generation  of  young  men,  nourished 
in  the  ideas  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  educated 
in  the  public  schools,  had  grown  up  under  new  insti- 
tutions. The  old  narrow  idea  of  loyalty  to  the  feudal 
lord  had  been  sublimed  into  loyalty  to  the  Mikado. 
In  place  of  three  hundred  petty  principalities  was  a 
nation  infused  with  the  newborn  virtue  of  patriotism. 
The  new  national  army  had  already  tested  its  spirit 
and  power  in  a  serious  campaign.  The  navy  built  of 
steel,  armed  with  modern  weapons,  and  with  dis- 
cipline adopted  from  Great  Britain  and  infused  with 
ideals  of  Bushido,  was  commanded  by  officers  educated 
abroad  and  possessed  of  considerable  experience. 
Sailors  and  soldiers  were  ready  and  eager  to  obey  the 
Emperor,  even  beyond  the  seas. 

Not  least  to  be  considered  was  the  organization  of 
a  Red  Cross  Society,  with  a  body  of  skilled  surgeons 
and  physicians  with  hundreds  of  trained  women 
nurses.    The  American  missionary,  Dr.  J.  C.  Berry, 

368 


PANOPLIED  JAPAN.    A  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  ARMY    359 

had  initiated  not  only  this  noble  method  of  util- 
izing women's  powers  and  gifts  in  behalf  of  the 
suffering,  but  also  prison  reform,  and  the  Govern- 
ment had  taken  up  both  enterprises.  After  the 
suppression  of  the  Satsuma  rebellion,  or  during  it, 
in  1877,  a  society  for  humanitarian  relief  was  or- 
ganized. In  1880  Japan  joined  the  Geneva  con- 
vention and  the  name  of  the  Red  Cross  Society  of 
Japan  was  assumed,  which  in  1907  had  over  one 
million  members.  During  the  Russian  war,  1,015,129 
Japanese  and  28,379  Russians  were  treated,  the 
hospital  steamers  making  614  voyages.  In  hearty 
cooperation  is  the  Japan  ''Woman's  League,"  with 
a  half  million  members,  founded  by  Mrs.  Okumura, 
which  has  done  a  noble  work. 

Korea,  which  is  Japan's  Ireland,  was  the  occasion 
of  the  war  with  China  (as  with  Russia),  but  not  the 
cause.  This  latter  was  to  be  found  in  the  Chinese 
claim  of  universal  sovereignty  which,  even  after 
treaties  with  Japan  and  European  countries,  that 
recognized  Korea  as  a  sovereign  State,  was  per- 
sistently and  in  the  face  of  a  special  agreement  with 
Japan,  defiantly  maintained  by  the  Chinese.  The 
Peking  mandarins  seemed  to  have  no  sense  of  either 
honor  or  humor,  or  were  unable  to  perceive  the 
incongruousness  of  putting  Korea  back  into  dual 
relationship.  The  king  and  Couit  of  Cho-sen  were 
too  weak  to  have  had  any  stability  of  mind  on  the 
subject  of  their  relations  to  either  empire.  There 
being  no  clear  distinction  between  Court  and  Govern- 


360  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

ment,  Seoul,  the  capital,  was  naturally  a  hotbed  of 
intrigue,  the  parties  of  nobles  being  alternately  pro- 
Chinese  or  pro-Japanese,  with  pro-Russian,  pro-French 
and  other  varieties,  as  opportunism  seemed  to 
demand.  Instead  of  the  Yang-ban  (civil  and  mili- 
tary) parasites  on  the  nation  giving  up  their  preroga- 
tives, their  clutch  on  the  treasury,  and  their  depen- 
dence upon  sorcerers,  palace  eunuchs,  and  female 
servants,  addressing  themselves  to  the  task  of  popular 
education,  and  getting  down  to  earning  an  honest 
livelihood,  like  the  Japanese  samurai,  they  kept  on  in 
their  old  ways,  continuing  them,  even  to  1907. 

In  Southern  Korea,  rebellions  and  uprisings  are 
chronic,  on  account  of  official  corruption  and  oppres- 
sion. The  peasants,  having  exhausted  every  other 
measure  of  redress  or  relief,  were  easy  victims  to  any 
agitator  who  promised  to  bring  in  the  Golden  Age. 
There  being  no  vivifying  force  in  Buddhism,  which 
had  been  under  ban  for  centuries,  or  in  Confucianism, 
which  was  the  cult  of  the  oppressing  and  persecuting 
nobles,  a  Korean  scholar,  Choi,  thought  that  he  found 
hope  in  his  own  system  of  eclecticism.  In  this, 
Christianity  was  made  an  element  and  even  a  new 
means  of  protecting  Oriental  culture  (Tong  Hak) 
against  the  inroads  of  Occidentalism  —  at  least  this 
was  his  pretext  —  and  of  relieving  the  struggles  of 
his  countrymen.  Branded  as  a  heretic,  he  was  put 
to  death,  as  thousands  of  native  Christians  had 
already  been.  When  Choi's  followers  spread  their 
table  with  the  crimson  cloth  in  front  of  the  Palace 


P.A^VOPLIED  J.\P-\X.    A  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  ARXTi*    361 

gates  and  laid  on  it  the  petition  that  their  teacher 
should  be  posthumously  honored  and  the  stain  oflS- 
cially  removed  from  I '-  '  "     n  away 

with  violence.    The  ^,       -:  i  ^>:*4,  was 

a  great  outbreak  in  the  South,  which  the  troops  sent 
from  Seoul  were  unable  to  repress.  The  Tong-Hak 
rel)ellion  became  so  serious  that  the  pro-Chinese  party 
of  the  Court  applied  to  China  for  military  assistance. 
In  1885,  after  the  ;  urbance  and  blood- 

sh(xl  between  Chinese  «w  *  ^.»iviiiw-<*  troops,  consequent 
upon  the  attempt  of  Kim  Ok  Kiun  and  others  to 
reform  Korea  within  twenty-four  hours,  a  convention 
had  beer  -      '    '■■  M  Hung  Char  -    -  '  '^     Marquis 

Iiat  la  nor  Japaii  armed 

ito  Korea  without  notifving  the  other.    China, 
'  '.'-'.     nd  sol- 

-  -       j  until 

she  had  done  it.    Simultaneously  she  insulted 
country  that  had  mad-  "  "    "  rea  by 

ng  of  Korea  as  "our  :.„„,._  :„:_  thus 
reasserting  her  ancient  claim  and  flouting  it  in  the 
face  of  the  world. 

At  the  same  time,  popular  opinion  in  Japan  blazed 
into  a  conflagration  because  of  the  assassination  on 
Cliinese  soil  of  Kim  Ok  Kiun.  He,  ha\ing  fled  to 
Js.pan  in  1885,  received  asylum  and  became  very 
popular.  Lured  to  Shanghai  by  a  telegram  which 
Wis  forged  and  a  bank  draft  which  was  worth- 
1    -    '  -  promptly  assasssinated  by  Korean  spies. 

^  .    -    government  made  itself  a  common  carrier 


362  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

of  carrion  by  ostentatiously  sending  Kim's  body  on 
one  of  its  own  men-of-war  to  Seoul,  where  it  was  duly 
chopped  up  and  the  pieces  publicly  exposed,  the 
murderer  being  rewarded  with  office  and  money. 
This  exhibition  of  savagery  was  meant  to  be  an  object 
lesson  and  a  direct  insult  to  Japan,  for  having  aban- 
doned such  time-honored  practices. 

When,  on  the  12th  of  June,  a  body  of  the  Mikado's 
troops,  under  strict  discipline,  was  despatched  to 
Korea,  the  whole  nation  and  the  Government  were 
one  in  sentiment.  Tokio  replied  to  Peking,  notifying 
its  military  action,  but  inviting  China  to  join  in  effect- 
ing financial  and  administrative  reform  in  Korea. 
China  promptly  refused  and  demanded  the  with- 
drawal of  the  Japanese  soldiers,  at  the  same  time 
setting  her  Manchurian  troops  on  their  march  over- 
land, and  chartering  the  transport  Kow-Shing  with 
artillery  and  troops  for  A-san,  a  stronghold  south 
of  Seoul. 

The  war  of  civilizations  began,  it  is  said,  by  the 
Chinese  battleship  Chen  Tuen  firing  on  the  Na- 
niwa.  On  July  25  Captain,  now  Admiral,  Togo, 
meeting  the  Kow-Shing,  after  long  waiting  on  one 
side  and  refusal  to  surrender  on  the  other,  sunk  the 
ship.  On  July  30  the  Chinese  were  driven  from 
A-san.  Declarations  of  war  followed,  both  on 
August  1.  The  one  was  temperate  and  clear.  The 
other  showed  a  Bourbon-like  inability  to  learn  or 
forget.  It  came  from  men  who  seemed  not  to  know 
in  what  age  or  world  they  were  living.     China  claimed 


PANOPLIED  JAPAN.     A  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  ARMY     363 


lave  always  followed  the  paths  of  philanthropy 
and  perfect  justice,  while  the  Japanese  ''Wo-jen/' 
or  pigmies,  were  declared,  without  any  cause  whatever, 
to  have  violated  the  treaties  and  invaded  China's 
small  tributary. 

At  once  the  battle  of  statistics  opened.  Arm- 
chair strategists  in  Europe  and  America,  with  their 
books  of  reference  at  hand,  made  prophecy  in  favor 
of  the  giant  against  Jack.  So  many  ships,  guns, 
men,  resources !  Of  course  China  nnist  win.  "What 
could  the  stripling  do  against  old  Goliath? 

The  writer,  having  helped  to  educate  some  of  the 
boys  who  were  now  in  Cabinet  and  in  command,  or  on 
field  and  deck,  knowing  the  Japanese  history  and 
spirit,  as  well  as  material  resources,  laid  down  in  his 
public  lectures  the  rough  plan  of  campaign,  as  fol- 
lows: That  "at  the  one  place  in  Korea,  where  decisive 
battles  had  always  been  fought,  that  is,  Ping- Yang, 
the  Japanese  would  be  victorious,  and  virtually 
annihilate  the  only  army  China  had,  that  is,  the 
twenty-five  or  thirty  thousand  men  trained  under 
German  officers;  and  after  that  Japan  would  go 
thi'ough  China  as  a  knife  goes  through  cheese,  being 
sure,  on  the  water  also,  to  win  ultimate  victory." 
Apart  from  her  small  army,  China  had  only  untrained 
mobs.  The  Japanese  were  vastly  superior  in  real 
soldiers  and  in  experienced  naval  officers. 

In  the  battle  on  the  loth  of  September  at  Ping- 
Yang,  the  Chinese  army  was  broken  up,  and  by  July  1 
were  no  Chinese  in  Korea.     On  the  17th  of 


■  ■  ■i.tb'5tf  were  n( 


364  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

September  the  Chinese  fleet  was  virtually  put  hors 
du  combat.  Then,  over  the  Korean  Rubicon,  General 
Nodzu's  army  began  that  brilliant  series  of  victories 
which  enabled  the  Japanese,  in  April,  1895,  to  domi- 
nate a  territory  on  the  Asian  continent  that  exceeded 
in  area  her  own  empire  in  the  sea.  The  second  army 
under  Marshal  Oyama  took  Port  Arthur  on  the  21st 
of  November.  Wei-hai-wei  came  into  the  possession 
of  the  Japanese  of  the  third  army,  on  January  31, 
1895.  An  expedition  sent  to  Formosa  made  landing 
on  the  main  island,  after  capturing  the  forts  in  the 
Pescadores. 

Instead  of  honorably  facing  the  reality  which  in- 
ternational law  requires,  the  Chinese  Government 
made  unworthy  attempts  to  gain  time  by  sending 
unaccredited  agents  to  treat  for  peace,  but  March  21, 
at  Shimonoseki,  Li  Hung  Chang  sat  in  council  with 
Marquis  Ito  and  Viscount  Mutsu,  and  negotiations 
opened.  Here  Japan  suffered  the  penalty  of  her 
own  false  ideals  and  misguided  education,  through 
the  attempt  of  a  fanatical  Soshi,  true  successor  of  the 
Ronin,  to  assassinate  the  nation's  guest,  the  venerable 
Chinese  envoy,  who  escaped  with  a  bullet  wound  in 
the  cheek.  A  settlement  was  made  and  the  ratifica- 
tions were  to  be  exchanged  at  Chifu  on  May  8.  The 
first  treaty  made  ceded  to  Japan  a  large  portion  of 
territory  in  Manchuria  and  Formosa,  and  awarded  an 
indemnity  of  300,000,000  Kuping  taels. 

The  convention  was  signed  April  15,  and  the 
peace  terms,  giving  the  Emperor  complete  satisfac- 


I 


I 


PANOPLIED  JAPAN.     A  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  ARxMY    365 


,  were  announced  on  the  afternoon  of  April  22. 
In  his  proclamation  he  added  that  "no  countenance 
will  be  given  by  us  to  such  as  through  conceit  at  the 
recent  victories  may  offer  insult  to  another  state  or 
injure  our  relations  with  friendly  powers,  especially 
as  regards  China." 

No  sooner  had  this  proclamation  \)vvn  issued  than 
Russia,  calling  to  her  aid  Germany  and  France, 
assembled  naval  forces  at  Chifu,  and  formed  a  coali- 
tion which  compelled  the  Japanese  to  give  up  all 
hope  of  holding  an  acre  of  ground  on  the  continent. 
It  was  a  comical  sight,  when  the  little  steam  tug  bear- 
ing the  Japanese  envoys  and  their  olive  branch 
steamed  into  Chifu  harbor.  The  passage  was  made 
through  an  artificial  fog  created  by  the  smoke  of  the 
artillery  of  battleships  and  men-of-war.  Three  Brob- 
diiignags  of  Europe  were  trying  to  overawe  the 
Lilliputians,  and  make  them  understand  how  terrible 
th(?se  fierce  lovers  of  the  peace  of  the  East  were. 
Japan,  not  entirely  exhausted,  but  hardly  ready  to 
fight  at  one  time  three  of  her  professed  friends, 
wed  her  pride.  The  Mikado  recalled  his 
pr("lamation,  issued  a  new  one,  and  then  the  whole 
Japanese  nation  made  up  its  mind  to  settle  with 
Russia  later. 

Formosa  was  occupied,  and  the  Chinese  indemnity 
was  immediately  invested  in  battleships.  After  the 
short-lived  Formosan  Republic  had  vanished  in 
smoke  and  some  heavy  fighting  had  been  done,  the 
splendid  enterprise  of  developing  Formosan  resources, 


rm, 


366  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

giving  her  people  a  better  government,  hygienic 
models,  and  the  benefits  of  modern  civilization,  of 
pacifying  the  head-hunting  savages,  and  of  making 
the  island  pay  for  itself,  was  begun.  Under  Dr.  Goto 
Shimpei  and  General  Kodama,  the  task  proceeded, 
and  has  already  issued  in  a  triumph  that  is  a  wonder 
in  the  annals  of  colonization.  The  cartloads  of 
Chinese  silver  taels  shipped  to  England  came  back 
in  the  form  of  floating  steel.  Straining  every  nerve 
to  develop  resources  and  bring  their  army  and  navy 
to  the  highest  grade  of  efficiency,  the  Japanese  waited 
to  see  how  Russia  would  keep  both  the  peace  with  the 
East  and  her  own  solemn  promises.  The  preparations 
to  surprise  the  world  were  by  no  means  relaxed  when 
it  was  found  that  through  diplomacy  and  railroads, 
and  by  cities  built  before  there  were  people  to  five  in 
them,  Russia  was  occupying  Manchurian  territory, 
and  that  all  signs  pointed  to  permanent  possession. 

Meanwhile,  two  new  factors  made  sudden  and 
unlooked  for  appearance  in  the  Far  East  as  disturbers 
of  the  balance  of  power,  and  the  economic  system  of 
the  whole  world  underwent  revolution.  By  their 
command  of  mineral  resources,  the  Americans  had 
unsettled  the  equilibrium  of  production.  When,  in 
March,  1897,  Pittsburg  was  able  to  undersell  the  world 
in  steel,  Europe  took  the  alarm  and  began  to  seek 
both  cheaper  material  and  new  markets.  The  logical 
result  was  a  general  scramble  among  Europeans  to 
fasten  their  grip  upon  the  country  which  possesses 
the  coal  and  iron  of  the  future.    Russia  seized  Port 


fOPLIED  JAPAN.    A  PUBLIC  SCHOOL   ARMY    367 

ur,  the  British  took  Wei-hai-wei,  and  Germany 
made  descent  on  Kiao-Chau,  thus  commanding  the 
road  to  Peking.  Before  France  and  Italy  could  obtain 
some  of  the  plunder,  the  American  ownership  of  the 
Philippines  and  the  outbreak  of  the  Boxer  uprising 
forced  the  United  States  into  the  diplomacy  of  the 
Far  East.  The  masterly  statesmanship  of  John  Hay 
and  William  McKinley  prevented  that  ''break-up  of 
Cliina"  which  had  been  so  gayly  anticipated. 

When  the  commercial  invasion  of  China,  so  morally 
disastrous,  and  so  much  more  terrible,  in  its  immediate 
effects,  than  the  missionary  enterprise,  in  disturbing 
old  habits,  customs,  and  prejudices,  besides  throwing 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  out  of  employment, 
precipitated  the  Boxer  outbreak,  the  United  States 
led  the  way  in  promptness,  policy,  and  power.  Prem- 
ier Yamagata  in  Tokio,  seeing  eye  to  eye  with 
President  McKinley,  made  ready  to  relieve  the  lega- 

fc,  then  besieged,  not  by  Chinese  soldiers  or  Gov- 
ent  forces,  but  by  a  mob  in  Peking,  ordered  the 
Hiroshima  division  to  China.  Had  the  Americans 
Japanese  been  allowed  to  proceed  without  waiting 
oF  others,  the  legations  could  and  would  have  been 
ved  at  least  a  month  sooner  than  they  were, 
ppily  for  the  preservation  of  the  honorable  policy 
of  the  United  States  since  the  very  foundation  of  the 
Government,  Rear-Admiral  Kempff  of  the  United 
States  navy  refused  to  join  the  coalition  of  foreign 
cc)mmanders,  who  in  a  time  of  peace,  when  the 
ese  Government  had  committed  no  hostile  act, 


niro 


lifiv( 

the 


368  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

decided  to  fire  upon  the  Taku  forts,  which  commanded 
the  river  ways  to  the  Chinese  capital.  Unfortu- 
nately the  Japanese  joined  in  this  ruthless  act  of 
treachery  to  a  friendly  Power,  which  precipitated 
a  war  with  China,  so  that  the  Chinese  regulars  were 
at  once  let  loose  in  hostile  action.  Rear-Admiral 
Kempff  laid  the  foundation  for  the  commanding  place 
which  the  United  States  occupied  in  later  negotia- 
tions in  Peking. 

Within  two  weeks  of  receiving  orders  from  Tokio, 
twenty  thousand  Japanese  veterans  were  on  Chinese 
soil,  marching  with  General  Chaffee  and  the  United 
States  contingent.  Unfortunately  they  were  obliged 
to  wait  for  the  slow  Russians,  and  could  not  march 
except  in  company  with  the  other  seven  nationalities. 
At  Tien-tsin  they  made,  with  valor  and  science,  a 
noble  record.  On  the  march,  they  were  among  the 
best-equipped  and  provisioned  troops,  and  they 
learned  enough  by  experience  to  make  them  ready, 
should  necessity  come,  to  face  European  troops  in 
battle.  In  the  looting  of  Peking,  which  disgraced  the 
soldiers  of  every  army,  it  was  curious  to  see  the  Japan- 
ese going  after  the  things  beautiful,  securing  works  of 
art  rather  than  lucre,  though  they  seemed  to  have 
almost  a  preternatural  knowledge  as  to  which  store- 
houses were  empty  and  which  were  full.  Among  other 
loot  brought  to  Japan  was  a  magnificent  copy  of  the 
Buddhist  Canon,  numbering  hundreds  of  volumes, 
the  whole  library  weighing  thirteen  tons.  Each  book 
was  three  feet  by  one  in  size,  bound  in  gold  brocade, 


PANOPLIED  JAPAN.    A  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  ARMY    369 

h  a  picture  on  the  cover.  Along  with  these,  were 
two  lecterns  of  red  sandalwood  eighteen  feet  long, 
three  wide,  and  four  high. 

During  this  period,  the  development  of  industrial- 
ism and  commercial  activity  following  the  war  with 
China  resulted  in  the  increase  of  a  movement  which 
had  been  going  on  since  the  abolition  of  feudalism 
1871.  The  population  from  the  rural  districts 
■Bed  into  the  great  cities  and  seaports,  and  notably 
Into  the  immense  manufacturing  city  of  Osaka.  The 
statistics  of  production  are  surprising  and  are  found 
in  the  annual  publication  of  the  Imperial  Cabinet, 
begun  in  1886,  entitled  "  R6sum6  Statistique  L'Empire 
du  Japon,"  in  French,  and  the  invaluable  Japanese 
Year  book,  published  in  Tokio,  in  English,  ancl  con- 
ing the  personal  history  of  prominent  people  as 
as  figures  relating  to  material  development. 
An  event  of  international  interest  was  the  Anglo- 
Japanese  alliance  signed  in  London,  January  30,  1902, 
in  which  the  governments  of  Japan  and  Great  Britain, 
rested  in  maintaining  the  independence  and  terri- 
integrity  of  the  Empire  of  China  and  the  Empire 
ofKorea,  and  in  securing  equal  opportunities  in  those 
countries  for  the  commerce  and  industry  of  all 
nations,  made  a  compact,  to  last  during  five  years, 
each  agreeing  to  assist  the  other  in  time  of  war  if 
a1)tacked  by  a  second  party.  On  this  basis,  Japan 
was  enabled  to  resist  Russian  aggression. 


^^^wen  a 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

THE  WAR  WITH  RUSSIA.      A  FOOTHOLD  ON  THE  CONTI- 
NENT 

The  practical  recognition  of  the  dignity  and  power 
of  Japan  by  Great  Britain  soon  bore  fruit.  Since 
1878  Russia,  apparently  turning  her  whole  colonizing 
energies  eastward,  had  built  her  railway  through 
Siberia.  With  the  help  of  France  and  Germany,  she 
had  driven  Japan  away  from  the  fruits  of  her  victory 
in  Manchuria,  and,  immediately  after  the  Boxer 
episode,  had  secured  from  China  a  treaty  giving  her 
the  lease  of  Port  Arthur  and  the  right  to  build  a 
railway  thither  and  also  to  Dalny.  The  long-desired 
ice-free  port  seemed  now  in  Russian  hands,  and 
forthwith  the  virtual  possession  of  Manchuria  was 
attempted.  Solemnly  promising  to  withdraw  her 
forces  on  October  8,  1903,  Russia  on  that  date  gave 
no  sign  except  of  strengthening  her  position  on  Chi- 
nese soil.  It  seemed  that  all  diplomacy  had  been 
transferred  from  St.  Petersburg  to  Port  Arthur,  and 
that  Admiral  Alexieff  was  dictator  of  the  situation. 

The  United  States,  accepting  the  pledged  word  of 
a  friendly  Power,  signed,  on  the  day  appointed  for 
evacuation,  a  treaty  with  China,  opening  Mukden  and 

370 


I 


THE  WAR  WITH  RUSSIA  371 


ung  as  places  of  trade.  Nevertheless,  Russia 
refused  to  receive  the  American  consuls  duly  appointed 
and  empowered.  It  is  highly  probable  that,  had 
Russia  continued  such  a  policy,  there  would  have  been 
war  between  the  United  States  and  Russia  within  ten 
years,  unless  Russia  had  backed  down  from  such  an 
absurd  position. 

The  long  diplomatic  duel  between  Tokio  and  St. 
Petersburg  is  well  known.  While  Mr.  Kurino  and 
Count  LamsdorfT  were  busy  with  bags  of  despatches, 
with  shameful  delays  on  the  Russian  side,  the  military 
activities  of  the  Czar's  masters  —  or  servants  — 
were  on  the  increase.  Twenty-six  Russian  war- 
vessels  were  gathered  at  Port  Arthur. 

On  February  G  diplomatic  relations  were  broken 
d  war  after  the  manner,  not  of  reasonable 
\  as  is  hoped  will  be  the  case  within  this  century, 
but  according  to  custom  and  the  way  of  the  panther 
and  the  tiger,  was  begun.  Vice-Admiral  Togo  was 
put  in  command  of  the  navy  and  Korea  was  occupied. 
Within  sixty  hours  two  Japanese  divisions  were 
inarching  toward  the  Korean  Rubicon  under  General 
Kiiroki.  On  May  1,  the  American  moving  day,  his 
soldiers  plucked  both  blooming  violets  and  Russian 
cannon  on  the  reddened  fields  of  Manchuria.  Within 
three  days  of  the  declaration  of  war,  Russia  had  one- 
third  of  her  Eastern  navy  damaged  or  destroyed. 
When  the  ice,  which  armored  the  shores  of  Manchuria, 
melted  sufficiently  to  permit  it,  the  second  army  under 
General  Oku  made  landing.    After  brilliant  victories, 


^^Hm  as 


372  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

Port  Arthur  was  besieged,  to  relieve  which  Kuro- 
patkin  marched  south,  only  to  be  defeated  by  Oku,  on 
June  14.  The  next  day  the  armies  of  Oku  and 
Nodzu  joined  Kuroki  at  Liao  Yang.  Port  Arthur 
resisted  assault,  and  the  tedious  work  of  bombardment 
and  circumvallation  had  to  be  begun.  The  Russian 
fleet,  after  the  midsummer,  ceased  to  be  a  factor  of 
offence.  Liao  Yang,  after  a  pitched  battle,  engaging 
half  a  million  men,  was  entered  September  4.  The 
next  great  objective  point  was  Mukden,  the  capture 
of  which  would  so  influence  China  that  the  moral 
results  were  to  be  greater  even  than  the  surrender 
of  Port  Arthur.  To-day  twenty  thousand  Chinese 
students  are  in  Japan,  learning  the  secrets  of 
success. 

Meanwhile  the  Baltic  fleet,  under  Admiral  Rojest- 
vensky,  began  the  long  voyage  to  the  Far  East,  to 
meet  doom  where  the  Mongol  Armada  had  sunk 
from  sight  over  five  hundred  years  before.  When 
winter  came  on,  the  two  armies  went  under  cover, 
but  the  Osaka  mortars  behind  Port  Arthur  threw  in 
their  eleven-inch  shells  continuously,  and  the  city 
surrendered  at  the  end  of  the  year.  This  set  free 
Nogi's  army  on  the  left,  while  from  the  east,  the 
two  divisions  from  Korea,  forming  the  right  wing,  soon 
gave  the  armies  under  the  Mikado's  banner  an  effec- 
tive field  force  of  four  hundred  thousand  men,  along 
a  semicircle  of  over  a  hundred  miles.  Meanwhile, 
at  Mokpo,  in  Korea,  Admiral  Togo,  with  ships  refitted, 
was  drilling   his    captains  and  commanders   In  evo- 


THE  WAR  WITH   RUSSIA  373 

lutions  and  target-practice,  and  preparing  to  be 
''lucky"  by  leaving  nothing  to  luck. 

The  great  battle  on  land  opened  February  22,  1905, 
lasting  the  greater  part  of  three  weeks,  but  on 
March  10  the  sun-banner  floated  above  the  tombs 
of  the  Manchu  dynasty.  In  swift  pursuit,  the 
Japanese  occupied  the  mountain  passes  looking  toward 
Harbin.  On  May  27,  between  the  hours  of  2.08  and 
2.45  P.M.,  the  great  naval  battle  of  the  Sea  of  Japan 
was  decided.  Before  the  end  of  the  next  day  the 
greater  part  of  the  Russian  fleet  was  under  the 
waves  or  in  Japanese  hands. 

These  are  the  known  facts  lunv  M-cti  in  perspective. 
Knowing  well,  since  ISfiO,  the  spirit  antl  temper  of  the 
Japanese,  and  having  lived  three  jTars  in  Tokio  in 
view  of  barracks  and  (h'ill  grounds,  I  was  asked,  of 
the  Twentieth  Century  Club  in  Hartford,  on  the  even- 
ing of  February  8,  1904,  to  forecast  the  issues  of  the 
war.     This  I  did  as  follows:  — 

1.  The  Russians  will  land  no  men  in  Japan  except 
as  prisoners. 

2.  Within  one  year  the  Japanese  will  have  in 
Manchuria  a  splendid  army  of  six  hundred  thousand 
me  a  drilled,  equipped,  and  handled  according  to  the 
advanced  principles  of  modern  military  science. 

o.  The  Japanese  will  quickly  win  and  hold  the 
sea-power,  protect  their  communications;  and  sink 
the  Russian  fleets. 

4.  The  spirit  of  Bushido  will  be  the  spirit  of  the 
whole  army,  and  every  soldier  will  be  a  samurai. 


■^ 


374  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

5.  The  effectiveness  of  the  Japanese  artillery  and 
ammunition  will  more  than  surprise  the  world.  It 
will  astound  experts. 

At  Greene,  N.Y.,  May  25,  1905,  I  said  in  a  public 
lecture,  ''Within  a  week,  the  majority  of  the  Russian 
ships  will  be  under  the  waves.  The  elements  in  the 
situation  forbid  the  idea  of  chance." 

When  the  month  of  June  arrived,  and  the  purple 
wistaria  was  blossoming,  the  situation  was  this: 
Japan  had  annihilated  the  Russian  fleet,  and  had 
gained  an  uninterrupted  succession  of  victories  over 
the  Czar's  forces  on  land.  With  long  foresight  and 
thorough  preparation,  every  contingency  had  been 
provided  against  by  a  war-loving  people,  united  and 
enthusiastic,  and  fighting  in  a  life-and-death  struggle 
for  food,  for  growth,  for  life,  and  for  honor,  and  so 
situated  as  to  be  able  to  strike  quickly  and  near  home. 
On  the  other  hand,  was  a  self-confident  and  thor- 
oughly unprepared  Power  fighting  at  arm's  length 
in  the  distant  extremity  of  empire.  In  the  midst  of 
a  country  only  recently  opened  to  sparse  settlement 
and  with  slender  railway  equipment,  the  Russians  had 
been  at  a  tremendous  disadvantage.  Yet  their 
resources  in  men,  money  supplies,  and  credit  were  still 
great.  During  the  war,  the  one  signal  triumph  of 
genius  on  the  Russian  side  was  in  the  enlargement 
and  increased  efficiency  of  the  railway.  With  a 
very  greatly  increased  army  and  under  a  new  com- 
mander, the  ■  Russians  could,  very  probably,  after 
June,  1905,  have  more  than  held  their  own.     They 


THE  WAR  WITH   RUSSIA  375 

learned  wisdom  and  had  awakened  to  the  pro- 
poi*tions  of  their  task. 

On  the  other  hand,  Japan  had  greatly  strained  her 
resources  in  men,  money,  and  supphes.  Having 
Korea  easily  under  her  control,  she  had,  with  amazing 
rai)idity  and  commendable  enterprise,  built  during  the 
war  a  railway  from  Fusan  to  Wiju,  thus  traversing  the 
whole  peninsula.  Rough  and  poorly  equipped,  it 
could  nevertheless  be  made  serviceable  should  the 
campaign  continue.  The  Liao  Tung  peninsula,  hav- 
ing easy  water  communications  on  both  sides,  it  had 
not  been  difficult  for  Japan  to  move  and  feed  armies. 

Geography,  which  is  half  of  war,  had  thus  far  been 
JajDan's  best  ally,  but  after  Mukden,  geography  would 
have  been  wholly  against  her  and  in  favor  of  Russia. 
The  problem  was  to  move  out  of  and  away  from  an 
easily  controlled  limited  area  into  a  great  space, 
farther  and  farther  from  her  communications.  Geog- 
raphy would  then  have  been  her  active  enemy. 
Meanwhile  her  financial  and  other  resources,  already 
strained,  would  soon  reach  a  point  of  depletion  be- 
yond the  limits  of  safety.  To  have  continued  the 
war,  facing  such  conditions,  would,  in  all  probability, 
have  been  to  face  disaster,  and  perhaps  to  repeat  at 
the;  other  end  of  Russia  a  Napoleonic  failure. 

This  was  the  contention  which  I  made  in  public 
lectures  and  conversation  at  the  time  when  an  invi- 
tation came  from  one  of  Millard  Fillmore's  successors 
to  take  steps  for  terminating  the  hostilities.  Japan 
had  gained  that  for  which  she  drew  the  sword.     It 


376  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

was  against  the  instincts  of  men  taught  in  Bushido 
to  make  war,  or  to  keep  on  making  it,  for  the  sake  of 
money.  Marshal  Yamagata  had  already  left  Tokio 
for  Manchuria.  With  the  victorious  generals  in  the 
field,  he  held  a  council  to  obtain  their  views,  and  to 
be  ready  to  explain  to  the  nation  why  he,  as  a  sol- 
dier, believed  in  honorably  concluding  the  war,  should 
opportunity  allow,  in  order  that  Japan  should  be 
able  unexhausted  to  exploit  her  newly  won  field. 
It  was  not  wise  to  spend  all  one's  money  and  effort 
on  building  a  house,  having  nothing  with  which  to 
furnish  it. 

Notwithstanding  the  noise  of  journalism  and  the 
demand  of  the  young  statesmen  in  the  newspaper 
offices  of  three  continents,  I,  for  one,  could  not  see 
why  or  how  the  Japanese  could  ever  get  any  indem- 
nity, for  the  expenses  of  the  war,  from  Russia,  or 
present  any  reasonable  claim  for  the  warships  in- 
terned in  neutral  ports;  while  I  doubted  very  much 
whether  Russia  would  yield  the  whole  of  Saghalien. 
I  felt  sure  that  under  the  direction  of  Baron  Komura 
and  Mr.  Takahira,  the  welfare  and  honor  of  Japan  would 
be  safely  entrusted,  for  I  knew  both  of  these  gentle- 
men from  their  youth  up.  Baron  Komura  had  been, 
for  two  years  or  more,  one  of  my  pupils,  and  one  of 
the  very  best  of  them,  in  the  first  class  in  the  Imperial 
University,  1872-1874,  and  I  knew  thoroughly  the 
workings  of  his  mind,  which  was  one  of  extraordinary 
penetration,  grasp,  and  poise.  Mr.  Takahira  had  been 
in  one  of  the  lower  classes,  but  I  knew  his  patience 


ine  err 


THE  WAR  WITH  RUSSIA  377 

thorough  knowledge  of  detail.  Meeting  him  in 
Washington,  July  28,  1904,  at  the  funeral  of  Admiral 
Taylor,  U.S.N.,  in  Arlington  Cemetery,  I  had  given 
him  my  reasons  for  my  absolute  faith  in  the  complete 
success  of  the  Japanese  struggle  with  Russia. 

ile  the  commissioners  were  travelling  toward 
e  green  baize  table  at  Portsmouth,  the  Saghalien 
expedition  occupied  Korsakoff  on  July  8,  and  Alexan- 
drosk,  July  24.  On  the  30th,  General  Haraguchi 
declared  military  administration  over  the  whole  island, 
the  remnants  of  the  Russian  troops  in  northern 
Saghalien  surrendering  on  the  31st. 

one  knew  better  than  Baron  Komura  on  what 

npopular  mission  he  was  going,  and  how  fierce 

wcmld  be  the  opposition  of  the  journalists  and  the 

nts  in  Tokio  that  do  not  make  for  peace,  law,  or 

r.     Indeed,  the  Marquis  Ito  had  warned  him  what 

to^xpect.     Cool-headed  diplomacy  and  hot-blooded 

do  not  usually  see  eye  to  eye,  and  another  step 

irTThe  evolution  of  the  nation  and  in  self-mastery  was 

taken.     Japan  was  to  enter  upon  the  greatest 

her   victories,   the   victory   over   herself  —  a 

thoiisand-fold  more  glorious  than  all   her  fairy-tale 

Muests. 

■le  peace  conference  opened  August  9.  At  the 
first  business  meeting  the  Russians  promptly  re- 
jected the  proposals  of  indemnity  and  territorial 
cession,  which  no  doubt  Komura  had  anticipated. 

K probable  that  not  one  of  the  Elder  Statesmen, 


w)  ex 

■I' 

m  tn( 
thousa 


378  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

any  right  to  advise  the  Emperor,  really  expected 
indemnity  or  cession  of  territory,  and  that  the  sub- 
stance of  instructions  to  the  plenipotentiaries  was 
that  they  should  secure  as  far  as  possible  commercial 
advantages  in  Manchuria,  the  Japanese  sovereignty 
over  Korea,  and  all  rights  of  the  most  favored  nation 
in  the  waters  adjacent. 

The  Russian  envoys  agreed  to  Japan's  sovereignty 
over  Korea,  the  transfer  of  the  lease  of  the  Liao  Tung 
peninsula  to  Japan,  and  of  the  East  China  Railway 
south  of  Chang  Chun,  and  the  privilege  of  Japanese 
fishing  on  the  Siberian  coast.  In  fact,  De  Witte  and 
Rosen  seemed  ready  to  acknowledge  that  whatever 
related  to  Russia's  trespass  on  Chinese  soil  and  all 
matters  of  actual  accomplishment  by  the  Japanese 
should  be  acknowledged  and  passed  over,  but  they 
were  obdurate  in  all  that  related  to  Russian  honor 
and  the  possibilities  of  the  future.  They  flatly  re- 
fused to  yield  the  whole  of  Saghalien,  to  surrender 
the  warships  interned  at  neutral  ports,  or  to  agree 
to  the  limitation  of  the  Russian  navy  in  the  Far  East. 
The  conference,  toward  the  end,  seemed  about  to 
end  in  failure.  Since  the  Anglo-Japanese  alliance 
had  been  renewed  and  Japan  had  gained  her  foothold 
in  Manchuria,  and  was  free  to  pursue  a  peaceful  policy 
for  at  least  ten  years,  it  seemed  to  the  Elder  States- 
men wise  to  accept  the  situation.  On  August  28, 
after  a  protracted  meeting  of  the  Elder  Statesmen, 
Privy  Council,  and  Cabinet,  followed  by  a  conference 
before  the  Throne,  a  long  telegram  was  despatched  to 


I 


THE  WAR  WITH   RUSSIA  379 


n  Komura  renouncing  the  war  indemnity  and 
the  northern  half  of  Saghahen. 

e  expected  results  followed  when  the  news,  in 
orted  proportions,  reached  Japan,  although  the 
demonstration  took  a  form  that  makes  every  Japanese 
blush  as  he  thinks  of  it  to-day.  It  was  the  Tokio 
populace,  and  not  the  nation,  or  the  people,  that 
made  disgraceful  protest  in  a  carnival  of  riot. 

fortunate  local  conditions  furnished  the  soil 
of  which  noxious  weeds  of  lawlessness  quickly 
sprang  up,  though  coming  and  going  like  Jonah's 
gourd.  The  people  of  Tokio  had  long  been  indignant 
because  the  city's  police  force  was  under  Imperial 
ad  of  municipal  control.  Hence  Tokio  policemen 
very  unpopular.  The  Home  Minister  was 
personally  obnoxious.  The  journalism  of  the  capital 
had  hardly  reached  the  standard  of  average  civiliza- 
tion, though  quite  equal  in  vileness  to  some  yellow 
specimens  of  our  own  reptile  press.  Thousands  of 
jin-riki-sha  men  had  been  thrown  out  of  employment 
by  the  recent  installation  of  electric  cars  and  rail- 
The  proprietors  of  brothels,  angry  at  the 
inroads  made  upon  their  infernal  business  by  active 
istians,  who  enforced  law,  were  quite  ready  to 
churches.  In  a  word,  here  was  an  unusual  and 
ogether  exceptional  combination  of  elements  that 
to  disgrace  the  nation,  and,  under  the  very  eyes 
e  Emperor,  to  make  Tokio  a  place  of  anarchy, 
sfTiously  compromising  Japan's  boastfulness  and  pride 
rder. 


^^altog 

S(T10l 

^^^^raer. 


380  JAPANESE   NATION   IN  EVOLUTION 

In  the  Tokio  Fury  of  September  5  and  6,  the  Cabinet 
ministers'  houses  were  assaulted,  poUce  offices,  sentry- 
boxes,  electric  cars,  and  Christian  churches  were 
burned.  The  police,  charging  upon  the  unarmed 
populace,  killed  some  and  hurt  many.  The  number 
of  casualties  were  471  police  and  558  citizens,  most  of 
whom  were  wounded.  Besides  domiciliary  search- 
ings,  hundreds  were  arrested  on  the  charge  of  sedition 
and  rioting.  Incendiarism  and  collisions  between 
police  and  people  continued,  so  that  it  was  necessary 
to  issue  an  Urgency  Imperial  Ordinance,  though  the 
Metropolitan  Council,  by  a  strongly  worded  resolu- 
tion, openly  condemned  this  action  of  the  Govern- 
ment. Tokio,  for  the  first  time,  was  placed  under 
martial  law.  Five  newspapers  were  suspended, 
military  patrols  placed  in  over  seventy  places  in  the 
city  and  suburbs,  and  electric  cars  stopped  after  dark. 

When  the  same  disorder  was  attempted  at  Yoko- 
hama the  rabble  was  prevented  from  mischief  by  the 
presence  of  soldiery.  On  September  12  Admiral 
Togo's  flagship  Mikasa  was  accidentally  blown  up 
at  Sasebo,  five  hundred  officers  and  sailors  being 
killed  or  wounded. 

Anti-peace  demonstrations  were  held  in  the  prov- 
inces. On  the  20th  another  united  anti-peace 
friendly  meeting  gathered  at  Uyeno  in  Tokio,  and 
six  professors  of  the  Imperial  University  handed  a 
petition  to  the  Imperial  Household  that  the  peace 
treaty  be  vetoed.  The  Union  Anti-peace  Committee, 
for  the  whole  country,  submitted  a  memorial  to  the 


THE  WAR  WITH   RUSSIA 


381 


expe 


rone.  By  the  27th  of  September  two  hundred 
petitions  to  veto  the  ratification  of  the  peace  treaty 
had  been  sent  to  the  Court. 

evertheless  the  Privy  Council  wisely  approved 
ratification  of  the  peace  treaty,  and  soon  a  com- 
bination of  circumstances  caused  a  tremendous 
revulsion  of  national  feeling,  and  all  agitation  sub- 
sided very  quickly.  On  the  27th  the  Anglo-Japanese 
alliance  renewed  was  published  and  Tokio  was  released 
from  martial  law.  The  hotheaded  populace  found 
out  that  the  treaty  was  not  quite  so  bad  as  they  had 
expected.  Admiral  Noel,  commander  of  the  British 
tic  squadron,  visited  Kobe  and  Yokohama,  and 
re  were  festivities  and  fraternal  demonstrations 
on  a  large  scale.  The  Emperor  issued  a  Rescript,  in 
appreciation  of  the  services  of  his  soldiers  and  sailors. 
After  the  triumphant  entry  of  Admiral  Togo  and  his 
cers  into  Tokio  and  the  grand  naval  review,  on 
ber  22  and  23,  the  people  seemed  to  forget  their 
griefs  and  to  face  the  future  with  hope  and  joy. 
ron  Komura,  on  his  arrival,  received  immediate 
ence,  honor,  and  award  from  the  Emperor.  He 
soon  sent  to  China  as  special  plenipotentiary,  to 
re  the  results  of  the  peace  treaty.  On  Novem- 
5  the  great  memorial  services  at  the  Shokonsha, 
hrine  for  the  Welcome  of  Spirits,  were  held.  On 
14th  the  Emperor  proceeded  to  Ise  to  make 
formal  communication  to  ''the  Imperial  ancestors," 
pifying  them  of  the  conclusion  of  peace.  On 
lecember  7  Marshal  Oyama  and   his  staff,  and  on 


382  JAPANESE  NATION   IN  EVOLUTION 

the  9th  Kuroki  and  staff,  had  their  triumphant  recep- 
tion in  Tokio.  On  December  21  Marquis  Ito  was 
appointed  Resident  General  in  Korea.  The  Imperial 
headquarters  and  the  united  squadrons  were  dissolved. 
The  Tsukuha  was  launched  at  Kure  on  the  26th. 
The  opening  ceremony  of  the  twenty-second  session  of 
the  Diet  was  held  on  the  28th,  and  thus  the  year  closed 
with  ''the  Empire  grateful  for  universal  peace." 
Japan's  real  advance  was  in  science,  philanthropy, 
the  saving  of  human  life,  the  kind  treatment  of 
prisoners,  and  in  living  up  to  the  highest  requirements 
of  civilization. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 


'^ORLD    POWER.      AMBITIONS,    BURDENS,    PROBLEMS 


the  narrow  life  of  old  Japan,  with  its  high  ideals, 
re  training,  and  elect  simple  life,  one  can  see 
Fciemblances  to  the  Spartan,  the  Stoic,  the  Calvinist, 
other  types  of  conviction  and  culture,  that  have 
e  heroes  and  institutions  worthy  of  serious  study, 
the  Japanese  magic  mirror,  which  shows  in  its 
iction  both  a  smooth  orb  of  light  and  the  artistic 
e  in  bas-relief  cast  on  the  other  side  of  the  metal, 
in  the  bursting  into  world-light  of  modern  Dai 
pon,  we  recognize  behind  phenomena  all  the  age- 
old  ideals  crystallized  from  long  |)olitical  training  and 
ethical  discipline.  Modern  Japan  has  not  surprised 
e  who  knew  well  her  real  story, 
he  region  of  the  Yamato  and  the  primitive  Mika- 
e  was  at  first  a  very  small  area.  Steadily  grow- 
iiig  through  the  early  and  mediaeval  ages,  it  has  not 
only  expanded,  but  consolidated.  By  mastery  of 
science  and  supreme  prowess  on  land  and  sea,  but 
fci  more  by  calling  out  her  own  inherent  virtues 
R  forces,  Japan  has  in  our  century  become  a  world- 
power.  The  Japanese  are  claiming  social,  as  well 
political,  equality  and  are  determined  to  make 
selves  worthy  of  both. 

383 


384  JAPANESE  NATION   IN  EVOLUTION 

Their  pride,  always  great,  is  now  flattered  by  suc- 
cess. Their  ambitions,  long  dormant,  have  awakened 
to  the  grand  opport.unity. 

But  what  are  Japan's  ambitions  ?  About  this,  the^ 
world  is  thinking,  and  various  are  the  answers  given, 
according  as  they  spring  from  guilt  rather  than 
righteousness,  ignorance  rather  than  insight,  and  out 
of  emotions  instead  of  science.  Legacies  from  the 
Crusades,  memories  of  the  Mongols,  seared-conscience 
shadows,  nightmare  dreams  of  a  ''Yellow  Peril," 
fears  that  raise  a  skeleton  at  the  banquet  of  earth- 
hungry  European  marauders,  destroy  clear  vision  of 
the  future  and  confuse  the  perspective  of  history. 
The  avaricious  Yankee  fears  for  his  share  of  plunder. 
The  untempered  alien,  anarchist,  or  fanatic,  who 
abuses  his  freedom  in  the  United  States,  outdoes  the 
dog  in  the  manger. 

To  those  who  know  well  Japan's  story  and  the  re- 
lentless cosmic  conditions  imposed  upon  her  people, 
and  who  are  even  moderately  free  from  prejudice, 
taking  science  instead  of  instinct  as  the  point  of 
view,  it  is  difficult  to  see  in  Japan's  purpose  anjrthing 
more  than  the  first  law  of  nature.  Self-preservation 
is  her  highest  ambition.  By  making  the  food-supply 
for  the  nation  sure,  by  securing  honorable  commerce 
and  open  markets,  and  in  longing  for  a  fair  share  of 
the  produce  of  the  earth,  she  would  hold  her  own  in 
the  competition  of  the  nations.  ''Second  to  none" 
is  her  motto.  To  secure  victory  in  the  splendid  race, 
she  will  make  herself  worthy  of  the  crown. 


A  WORLD  POWER 


385 


his  is  the  view  of  things  outwardly.  Japan  must 
e  her  position  sure.  So  long  as  it  is  the  way  of 
6  world,  even  among  the  advanced  nations  that  pose 
as  her  exemplars  and  teachers,  to  choose  the  battle- 
ship, the  army  corps,  artillery,  powder,  and  bayonets 
as  final  arguments,  Japan  will  follow,  for  she  must  and 

11  keep  step  with  humanity.  She  knows  well 
fl,t  its  still  sad  music  is.  No  nation  in  Europe  is 
ler  than  she  or  has  a  richer  experience. 
But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  reversing  the  order  of 
J  ages  and  ushering  in  the  reign  of  reason  in  place 
[brute  force,  the  nations  rear  tribunals  of  arbitra- 
n,  lesson  their  armaments  or  even  disarm,  Japan 
will  be  quick  to  keep  step,  follow  example,  and  be 
er  to  run  in  the  race,  as  hopeful  rivals  for  the 
wn  of  peace. 

or,  all  that  Japan  does  is  best  explained  by  her 
inner  life.     One  must  study  her  magic  mirror, 
her  revolutions  —  often  unseen,  unknown,  unsus- 
ted  by  the  world  —  have  been  first  wrought  in  her 
mind,  or  at  least  in  that  of  her  leaders.    The 
rior  life,  especially  since  1853,  has  been  and  still  is 
ter  than  the  exterior.     That  which  is  unknown 
the  world  at  large  is  vastly  more  important  than 
t    newspapers    and    telegrams    reveal.     Japan's 
ard    ambition    is  even  nobler  than  that  which 
linds  outward  expression.     It  is  to  screen  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  average  Japanese  into  a  modern  man. 
The  five  millions  who  rule  the  country  would  Hft 
UD   to    full    manhood    the    entire    nation   of    fifty 


up   to    lull 


386  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

millions.  What  hurts,  what  helps  one,  now  helps, 
hurts  all. 

For,  alongside  of  her  ambition  is  her  double  burden. 
Hers  is  her  own  added  to  ''the  white  man's."  With 
her  hopes  are  her  problems.  After  the  long  seons 
of  struggle,  the  Japanese  are  not  yet  a  nation  in  the 
truest  sense,  and  their  leaders  know  it.  The  nation 
inside  the  nation  is  small.  The  mighty  mass  still 
pagan,  even  in  a  Japanese  sense,  inaka,  stolid,  low  in 
tlie  scale  of  evolution,  is  yet  to  be  raised  up.  Neither 
bloody  victories  nor  dazzling  military  successes  have 
yet  done  this.  The  myriads  upon  myriads  of  inaka 
are  still  far  below  the  intelligent  heimin.  As  tough 
a  problem  to  that  Tokio  statesman,  who  is  a  real 
patriot,  as  to  the  "  hired  converter,"  the  alien  mission- 
ary, is  the  problem  of  the  lower  forty-five  millions. 
Before  the  militarist  and  ''kitchen  cabinet"  dictators, 
they  are  fully  "submerged." 

With  full  bellies  and  with  even  scant  comforts, 
these  can  be  kept  contented;  but,  unless  we  mistake 
both  the  high-souled  men  of  '68,  their  successors  near 
the  Emperor,  and  the  sons  of  the  twentieth  century,  the 
ambition  of  these  is  to  make  a  nation  of  real  samurai. 

How  to  do  this  is  the  question.  With  nations,  as 
with  individuals,  life  is  short  and  art  is  long.  No 
royal  road  has  ever  yet  opened  to  a  permanent  success 
that  eliminates  dust,  sweat,  and  toil.  The  labor  that 
is  forgotten  must  ever  precede  the  work  that  remains. 
Alas  for  the  men  of  glowing  vision  that  faint  in  the 
long  service !    Even  those  of  '68,  giants  in  will,  but 


A  WORLD  POWER 


387 


^ 


dren  in  experience,  burnt  often  their  fingers  and 

wed   long  the  cud  of   disappointment.     I   knew 

em  well  and  heard  them  talk.     They  thought  that 

^ve  or  ten  years  would  suffice  to  make  Japan  not 

y  the  equal  of  Europe,   but  the  welcomed  and 

accepted  member  at  the  world's  council.     To  compile 

tily-made  law  codes,  they  supposed  would  at  once 

ure   the    abolition    of    exterritoriality.    To    send 

oad  direct  representatives  of  the  Emperor  would 

ort   instant  acknowledgment  of   Japan's  political 

ality.     To  this  day,  overweening  conceit  makes 

y  a  Japanese  imagine  that  he  and  his  people  are 

cidedly  the  superiors  of  Europeans.     Yet  many  a 

long  and  hard  discipline  awaits  him  before  he  finds 

ity  apart  from  conceit. 

o  sure  in  1872  were  the  members  of  that  wonderful 
mittee  of  four,  Iwakura,  Okubo,  Kido,  and  Ito, 
their   quick   success,  that  despite  the  warnings 
ot  the  American   minister,   Hon.  Charles  De  Long, 
y  actually  left  Japan  for  America  without  the 
entials  of  plenipotentiaries.    After  honored  re- 
tion  at  the  White  House  and  on  the  floor  of  Con- 
s,  they  met  with  humiliation  and  rejection  at  the 
I  Department.     Then  they  lost  months  in  wait- 
while  two  of  the  envoys  recrossed  the  Pacific 
get  the  first  requisites  for  the  opening  of  the  qucs- 
in.     After  traversing  the  round  world,  they  failed 
their  great  mission.    The  Governments  of  Europe 
re  unanimous  in  refusing  to  trust  their  people  to 
tive  courts. 


388  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

For  twenty  years  or  more  their  Emperor  suffered 
lese  majesty  in  his  own  domain.  Only  after  long  and 
devious  ways,  agonizing  to  find  the  straight  gate, 
amid  conservative  reactions,  warfare  at  home, 
assassination  of  their  ablest  men,  internal  struggles 
in  cabinet  and  tribune,  in  debates  before  the  Throne, 
with  prisons  filled  with  editors  and  men  whose  chief 
crime  was  prayer  to  the  Throne  that  the  Imperial 
promises  of  1868  should  be  fulfilled,  labors  manifold 
in  the  making  of  codes  and  law  and  persistent  diplo- 
macy at  home  and  abroad,  were  they  able  to  win  from 
the  nations  full  recognition  of  Japan's  sovereignty. 

Yet  all  this  internal  struggle  —  in  its  collective 
results  as  bloody  as  the  strife  with  China  and  more 
strenuous  by  far  and  amazingly  more  prolonged  than 
the  later  war  with  Russia  —  was  but  a  legal  and 
political  one.  No  one  can  even  measurably  under- 
stand twentieth-century  Japan,  who  does  not  realize 
that  her  internal  struggles  were  greater  than  her  out- 
ward wars.  Her  mightiest  conquest  was  over  her- 
self. In  grandiloquent  phrase,  too  ''Oriental"  to  be 
wholly  worthy  of  modern  Japan,  everything,  includ- 
ing the  Constitution  and  victory  on  deck,  in  the  field 
and  at  the  council  table,  came  ''by  grace  of  the 
Emperor,"  by  "virtue  of  the  Mikado's  ancestors.'* 
In  plain  Anglo-Saxon,  these  came  from  the  brain  and 
heart  of  Japan's  struggling  and  aspiring  sons,  in  much 
the  same  way  as  come  the  triumphs  of  Occidental 
men,  who  ascribe  glory  to  God  and  give  credit  to 
mortal  sinners.     In  the  English  language,  it  is  correct 


FlKUZAWA 


Nakami  It  A 


I 


Okima  Itacjaki 

FOUNDKRS   OF   POLITICAL   PARTIES   IX  JAPA^f 


HHrir 

aur 


A  WORLD  POWER  389 

to  say  that  Japan's  Constitution  and  her  victories 
are  the  results  of  hardworking  men,  of  the  Hving  as 
1  as  the  dead,  of  the  spirit  of  the  nation. 
In  the  social  and  intellectual,  the  moral  and  the 
spiritual  realms,  the  same  law  of  fleeting  time  and 
receding  ideals  holds  good.  Japanese  human  nature 
exactly  like  ours,  and  the  laws  that  govern  the 
elopment  of  the  nation  no  different  in  an  archi- 
go  than  on  a  continent. 

ager  to  discharge  their  teachers,  to  get  rid  of  their 
toi,  and  to  raise  the  exotic  seed  to  consummate 
er,  that  they  might  themselves  hold  every  shred 
power,  the  Japanese  moved  quickly  to  success 
that  too  often  was   illusive  and   disappointing,   as 
ch  of  their  seeming  success  to-day  is.    There  are 
many  sloughs  of  despond  and  pathways  of  sorrow  yet 
be  traversed.    Their  experiences   have  revealed 
national   excellencies   and  limitations.     Herein, 
uring  the  past  decade  or  two,  they  have  seen  them- 
ves  in  a  mirror,  and  as  the  discerning  critic  beholds 
m.     As  soldiers  and  sailors  they  excel.     Quick 
rnal  success  that  dazzles  especially  the  onlooker 
med  easily  won;    but  in  education,  in  morals,  in 
ial  uplift,  in  the  virtues  of  truth,  chastity,  stability 
marriage,  in  all  that  makes  the  real  man  apart  from 
noise  of  war,  and  as  something  other  than  what  is 
raised  in  uniforms  and  breast  medals,  how  slow 
advance  !      How  difficult  to  find  thoroughly  good 
ichers  in  the  schools,  honest  merchants,  who  will 
p  a  contract  against  a  falling  market,  men  that 


390  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

swear  to  their  hurt  but  change  not,  who  love  truth 
for  its  own  sake,  or  bestow  freely  their  wealth  for 
pubhc  good !  How  sHghtly  scratched  is  the  soil  of 
paganism  —  that  is,  paganism  from  the  point  of 
view  of  any  religion  on  earth  that  has  lofty  ethical 
ideals  !  How  priestcraft  still  dominates  the  villages  ! 
How  low  is  still  the  status  of  women !  How  licensed 
obscenity  still  smells  rank  in  Japan,  Korea,  Man- 
churia, and  the  southern  Asiatic  ports !  How  glori- 
fied are  still  the  moral  poltroonery  of  suicide  and  the 
false  heroics  of  the  assassin !  How  slight  has  been 
the  real  advance  of  truly  representative  government ! 
Bureaucracy  and  military  oligarchy  form  the  real 
power  behind  the  Throne.  Japan's  "  kitchen  cabinet " 
is  a  disgrace  to  a  nation  professing  constitutional 
monarchy.  True  party  government  seems  yet  far 
off.  Domestic  morals  seem  to  be  at  that  state  of 
evolution  which  shows  that  Japanese  are  ethically 
yet  in  the  group,  rather  than  in  the  individual. 

To  get  at  the  facts  we  need  not  read  missionary 
reports  or  the  criticisms  of  hostile  and  unsympathetic 
aliens.  Confining  his  reading  to  native  literature, 
official  and  private,  to  his  observation  rightly  inter- 
preted, to  such  books  as  Lafcadio  Hearn's  final  work 
—  so  radically  different  from  all  his  others  —  '^  Japan : 
An  Interpretation,"  a  subtle  but  terrific  exposure,  one 
can  sympathize  with  those  patriots  who  bear  their 
country's  burdens  on  heart  and  mind. 

The  purest  lover  of  Nippon  is  not  necessarily  found 
in  government  pay,  uniform,  or  decoration.    Very, 


mUf. 

m 


A  WORLD  POWER  391 

very  far  from  it !  By  a  real  Japanese  patriot,  we 
mean  an  unselfish  one,  less  anxious  for  favor,  rewards, 
and  promotion  than  to  give  service  and  help,  in  har- 
mony with  noble  spirits  who  loved  their  country 
more  than  life,  who  toiled  and  even  suffered  on  in 
life  rather  than  sought  easy  death  in  battle  or  stooped 
to  cowardly  suicide.  Whether  pagan,  agnostic,  or 
hristian,  if  living  to-day,  such  a  patriot  knows  the 
ity.  The  kind  of  success  that  Japan  has  already 
won  sobers  him,  because  of  its  rapidity  and  its  decep- 
|gn.  He  knows  too  well  how  great  is  that  part  of 
country's  debt  which  is  not  expressed  in  treasury 
s.  The  sort  of  national  success  yet  to  be  gained 
hat  he  hopes  for.  The  true  glory  of  such  men's 
labor  makes  stars  and  medals  ridiculous. 

These,  the  real  makers  of  the  New  Japan  to  come, 
prick  the  bubbles  of  a  mythology  that  is  made  to 
bolster  the  bureaucracy  that  is  parasitic  to  the  nation 
and  eating  out  its  nobler  life.  They  attack  moral 
rottenness  of  certain  licensed  "institutions,"  exposing 
with  a  view  to  heal  inherited  traits  of  moral  weak- 
They  would  reform  some  damning  ideals  that 
glorify  self-murder.  They  teach  that  it  is  even 
^ter  to  be  taken  prisoners  honorably  and  show 
■Uence  and  a  lifelong  noble  character,  than  to  quickly 
})eg  life's  noblest  question  by  suicide.  They  are 
grappling  with  the  rapidly  advancing  problems  of 
labor  and  capital,  of  government  and  sociaHsms. 
They  are  rearing  solid  foundations  for  ethical  sanction 
the  higher  civilization  to  come.     They  note  the 


392  JAPANESE  NATION   iN  EVOLUTION 

weathering  and  the  deliquescence  of  classic  supersti- 
tion and  nursery  dogmas  which  time  inevitably 
brings,  and  they  labor  to  exemplify  and  embody  in  the 
State  that  which  accords  with  reality  and  the  world's 
best  hopes.  They  are  giving  to  their  people,  in 
unselfish  and  devoted  lives,  real  ethics  and  pure 
religion.     To  them  the  Nation  is  more  than  its  rulers. 

It  will  be  ultimately  impossible,  with  the  popular 
study  of  science  and  history  in  the  common  schools, 
to  preserve  the  dogmas  on  which  the  Government  or 
the  oppression  of  the  masses  has  long  been  built,  or 
to  maintain  even  the  reserved  powers  in  the  Consti- 
tution. In  Tokugawa  days,  the  pohcy  was  to  hold 
intact  the  iron  bands  of  inclusion  and  exclusion  and 
to  keep  the  people  ignorant  both  of  the  law  and  the 
reasons  of  the  law.  Science,  as  certain  as  earth- 
quakes, will  assuredly  overturn  certain  political  dog- 
mas and  superstitions  in  Japan  which  nominally 
grant  the  people  liberty,  while  in  reality  withholding 
it.  In  impotent  fear,  the  upholders  of  puerile  super- 
stition have  banned  all  critical  science  that  explores 
ancient  history  to  the  detriment,  real  or  supposed,  of 
imperialism.  Academic  freedom  in  Japan  is  not  yet, 
and  bold  scholars  have  more  than  once  felt  the  dis- 
pleasure of  the  Government. 

The  Japanese,  no  more  than  other  living  nations, 
or  those  buried  in  the  dead  civilizations  of  the  past, 
need  hope  for  permanence  in  that  character,  which 
was  the  product  of  an  age  of  feudal  discipline  now  and 
no  longer  possible.     Whence  shall  they  obtain  the 


A  WORLD  POWER 


393 


moral  force  to  drive  their  new  motors  in  this  era  of 
democracy,  or,  as  a  native  editor  said,  "the  moral 
oil  to  run  the  new  machinery  "  ?  Even  "  kitchen  cabi- 
nets" or  palace  cliques  cannot  keep  back  democracy. 
The  Nation  in  evolution  must  rule. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

SECOND  TO   NONE 

In  this  chapter  I  propose  to  summarize  Japanese 
history  and  to  set  forth  our  reasons  why  the  people 
of  Nippon  should  be  treated  with  absolute  justice. 

The  whole  of  Japan's  trustworthy  political  history, 
until  1867,  may  be  comprehended  in  the  one  word  — 
feudahsm.  Before  written  record  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury, we  have  the  one  great  phenomenon,  in  legendary 
outline  only,  of  the  descent  of  the  conquering  race 
upon  the  islands.  The  process,  obscure  in  details, 
is  clear  in  its  main  features.  Then  follow  ages  of 
struggle  with  the  Aryan  Ainu,  who  are  subdued  and 
made  one  with  the  Yamato  people,  forming  a  homo- 
geneous body,  the  Japanese  people.  The  rise  of  the 
military  classes  follows  as  the  startling  result.  By  the 
twelfth  century,  when  for  the  first  time  the  many  and 
mixed  tribes  of  various  ethnic  stocks,  Aryan,  Malay, 
and  Mongol,  perhaps  Semitic  also,  are  blended  into 
a  nation,  feudahsm  is  a  system  accepted  as  a  fact. 
In  the  conception  of  society  it  is  almost  axiomatic. 
After  various  episodes  and  interruptions,  domestic 
and  foreign,  and  a  long  training  in  feudal  law,  custom, 
and  ideals,  Japan,  from  lyeyasu,  enjoyed  over  two 

394 


SECOND  TO  NONE 


395 


_centuries  of  isolation  and  peace.  In  the  nineteenth 
mtury  we  behold  the  onslaught  of  foreign  influences, 
ming  in  centralized  monarchy,  the  abolition  of 
^udalism,  the  adoption  of  the  material  forces  of  the 
Test,  the  reconstruction  of  the  State  at  the  hands 
about  fifty  high-souled  leaders,  two  notable  foreign 
irs  which  blew  to  atoms  two  obsolete  dogmas,  the 
le  Chinese  and  the  other  European,  and  Japan's 
mergence  yesterday  as  a  world-power.  Such  phe- 
>mena  equal,  if  they  do  not  eclipse,  in  historical 
berest  the  rise  of  the  Dutch  republic  in  the  six- 
;nth  century,  which  compelled  a  new  Europe. 
Suppose  some  other  than  Chinese  civihzation  and 
)me  other  religion  than  Buddhism  —  Hittite,  He- 
5W,  Roman,  Greek  —  had  come  to  these  insulars ! 
tppily,  between  the  sixth  and  twelfth  centuries, 
lina  of  the  glorious  age  of  the  Tang  and  Sung  dynas- 
was  the  most  civilized  country  on  the  globe. 
;r  political  system  was  noble,  her  literature  superb, 
vast  is  the  dcl)t  of  both  Japan  and  mediaeval 
irope  to  China ! 

Herein  is  the  abysmal  dilTcrcncc  between  the  Chi- 

56  and  the  Japanese  or  ourselves.     The  Chinese 

rented  what  they  have.     We  did  not;   nor  did  the 

ipanese.     Nearly   all  that   is   fundamental   in  our 

dlization,  religion,  law,  letters,  figures,  has  been 

arrowed.     Like   the  Japanese,   we   are   debtors  to 

;t  ages,  races,  and  civilizations.     On  the  contrary, 

le  Chinese  have  had  but  one  culture.     It  is  indige- 

ms.     They  have  held  to  it  and  have  never  changed. 


396  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

It  is  no  wonder  that  they  seem  thus  far  incurious  and 
insensitive.  The  Japanese,  like  ourselves,  invented 
little,  although  in  modern  times  they  have  adopted 
and  adapted  many  new  things.  Adepts  always, 
when  opportunity  offered,  they  took  the  novelties 
and  were  soon  ''up-to-date."  The  Japanese  mind, 
thoroughly  un-Mongolian,  works  in  other  grooves 
than  those  smoothed  by  the  Chinese. 

This,  then,  was  what  these  Yamato  men  did  when 
they  adapted  things  Chinese.  They  became  ''ex- 
pansionists" and  organized  armies.  In  a.d.  645  was 
their  great  revolution.  Having  imported  something 
better  than  what  they  already  had,  they  adopted 
"civilization."  They  took  from  China  a  manifestly 
superior  pattern  for  their  civil  government,  with 
costume  and  documents.  China  and  Chinese  were 
to  the  Japanese  as  Rome  and  the  Latin  language  to 
Europe  before  the  rise  of  the  modern  nationalities. 
According  to  the  law  of  human  progress,  the  Japanese 
did  what  our  fathers  did.  They  accepted  the  poten- 
cies of  improvement  when  these  were  offered  them. 

From  one  point  of  view  the  entrance  of  Chinese  or 
Mongolian  civilization  into  Japan  was  a  calamity. 
Politically,  "it  neither  consolidated  the  State  nor 
affirmed  the  Throne,"  while  it  arrested  the  progress 
of  the  language,  petrified  literary  forms,  and  enchained 
the  intellect  to  an  aUen  past.  In  the  working  of  their 
minds,  in  the  domain  of  philosophy  and  religion,  the 
Japanese  are  notably  un-Mongolian.  Unlike  the 
Chinese,  but  like  the  Greeks,  who,  in  the  crucible  of 


SECOND  TO  NONE  397 

ir  brains  transfused  the  simple  spiritual  ethics 
esusinto  an  elaborate  theology,  and  like  the  Latins, 
who  turned  them  into  an  ecclesiastical  discipline,  the 
composite  islanders  transformed  their  imported  Bud- 
dhism as  well  as  their  exotic  politics  and  social  ideals. 
What  came  from  beyond  sea  suffered  more  than  a 
sea-change.  With  a  power  of  adaptation  that  is  very 
near  creative  originality,  they  developed  new  systems 
»t  Shaka  Muni  would  no  more  recognize  than  would 
:Sus  the  things  named  after  him.  Kobo  in  the  eighth 
century  was  quite  as  clever  as  Philo,  Euhemerus,  or 
elm,  in  knowing  how  to  breed  away  thorns  from 
e  cactus.  The  successors  of  this  man  Kobo,  of 
kespcarian  intellect,  evolved  fresh  wonders  from 
religions  —  especially  when  more  priestly  power 
to  be  won  and  revenue  increased, 
ut  of  the  suggestions  of  Chinese  art  the  Japanese 
ted  a  most  un-Mongolian  world  of  beauty  and 
In  statecraft,  they  laid  under  the  Mikado's 
one  foundations  totally  different  from  the  bases 
up  either  in  the  Southern  or  Northern  Chinese 
itals.  Instead  of  keeping  apart  in  castes,  as  in 
ina,  soldier  and  civilian,  the  Japanese  united  in 
one  figure  the  warrior  and  gentleman.  With  sword 
pen,  Bushido  and  learning,  that  typical  product, 
'e  samurai  —  unmatched  in  all  Asia  —  was  pro- 
ced.  This  most  un-Mongolian  kind  of  man  culti- 
s  a  patriotism  that  is  seismic  in  its  energies, 
is  indigenous  flower  of  Japanese  manhood  is  bathed 
the  dews  and  steeped  in  the  virtues  of  truth,  loy- 


^I'his 
^__-ia.the  aews 


398  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

alty,  and  sacrifice.  His  is  the  spirit  which  breathes 
the  renunciation  of  all  things  for  the  nation  and  its 
incarnation,  the  Emperor.  By  training  a  new  genera- 
tion, even  all  the  people,  in  the  samurai's  code  (and 
this  was  made  possible  by  a  national  free  pubhc  school 
system)  and  by  virtually  conferring  the  patent  of 
nobility  upon  commoners  through  service  in  the  army, 
Japan  was  able  easily  to  humble  mighty  Russia. 
Before  1868  things  were  done  for  the  special  classes. 
In  the  Meiji  era,  statesmanship,  intellect,  and  applied 
philanthropy  have  been  for  the  whole  nation. 

The  un-Mongohan  spirit  of  the  Japanese  is  seen  in 
their  refusing  to  accept  blindly  Confucianism  in  its 
traditional  form  or  logical  consequences.  Wherever 
in  the  Chinese  empire  the  sage  sways  his  sceptre, 
filial  piety  is  the  cornerstone  of  society  and  'Hhe  five 
relations"  form  foundation.  But,  for  better  or  worse, 
the  ultra  un-Mongolian  Japanese  rejected  Chinese 
theory  and  practice.  They  made  loyalty,  not  filial 
piety,  their  central  virtue.  In  the  feudal  world  the 
baron  was,  in  the  new  empire  the  Emperor  is,  the 
centre  of  all  loyalty.  Mikado  and  country  are  more 
than  kith  and  kin.  Family  ties  snap  at  his  call. 
Note  that  China  has  had  thirty-six  dynasties,  Japan 
but  one. 

In  a  word,  the  Japanese  in  mind,  body,  speech, 
thought,  ways,  institutions,  mental  initiative,  in  the 
past  and  present  and  in  their  methods  of  life  in  foreign 
countries,  are  radically  un-Mongolian.  Occidentals, 
still  under  the  spell  of  traditions  as  old  as  the  Cru- 


SECOND  TO  NONE 


399 


les,  wonder  whether  their  ''new"  civilization  of 
Japan  will  endure.  From  the  viewpoint  of  history, 
the  Japanese  have  done  nothing  new  or  strange. 
They  are  true  to  their  record.  Foreigners,  judging 
le  "Orientals"  (a  word  that  has  lost  much  of  its 
meaning)  out  of  their  own  prejudices,  are  apt  to 
only  the  phenomenal  since  Fillmore's  time.  Igno- 
it  of  the  centuries  of  mind-preparation  that  wel- 
led science  when  it  came,  they  may  well  be 
lazed  and  suspicious.  The  Japanese  will  be  greatly 
lificd  by  Occidental  influences,  but  the  "Orient" 
modify  the  "Occident"  with  equal  power  and 
itual  benefit. 

[Religionists  who  expect  to  win  these  un-Mongolian 
inders  to  traditional  Christianity,  whether  of  the 
rreek,  Roman,  or  Reformed  order,  are   doomed   to 
jappointmcnt.     These    people    are    so    much    like 
selves  that  they  already  put  difference  between 
it  Jesus  taught  and  that  which  the  sects  and 
tblishments  bring  them.  Every  theology  or  philoso- 
yet  acclimated  in  Japan  has  been  compelled 
wear  a  Japanese  kimono."     In  this  age  of  science 
critical    history,    the    Japanese,    while    rapidly 
joming  followers  of  Jesus,  reject  Latin  and  Greek 
litions    as    non-vital.      The    mediaeval   forms   of 
ropean  dogma  are  discarded.     They  are  thinking 
and  setting  in  their  own  moulds  of  mind  the 
5sage  of  the   Nazarene.     In  the  rebirth    of  the 
;ion  into  the  spirit  that  moves  the  best  civilization 
the  world,  the  Japanese  are  one  with  humanity. 


400  JAPANESE  NATION  IN  EVOLUTION 

What  we  have  stated,  with  detailed  proofs,  in  a 
pamphlet  of  twenty  pages  published  in  Boston  in 
April,  1907,  and  entitled  "  Christ  the  Creator  of  the 
New  Japan,"  is  this:  — 

"Behind  almost  every  one  of  the  radical  reforms 
that  have  made  the  New  Japan  stands  a  man  —  too 
often  a  martyr  —  who  was  directly  moved  by  the 
spirit  of  Jesus,  or  who  is  or  was  a  pupil  of  the  mis- 
sionaries." 

In  a  word,  the  Japanese,  having  always  striven  for 
the  best,  will  not  in  the  future  be  behind  the  elect 
souls  of  every  age,  nor  will  they  turn  their  backs  to 
the  Great  Captain. 

The  Japanese  are  not  '^  Mongolian."  They  justly 
refuse  to  be  classed  as  such.  In  the  end,  both  deserv- 
ing and  winning  success,  they  will  gain  social  as  they 
have  already  won  political  equality  with  Occidentals, 
and  the  world  will  be  the  better  for  it. 


INDEX 


315. 

Aborigines,  see  Ainu. 
Academic  freedom,  392, 
Adoption,  238,  239. 
Adzuina,  94,  313. 
Agriculture,  51,  163. 
Aino,  8. 

u,   ancient,    1-29,   48,   90-100, 
138,     171,     180-190,     201, 
,218,  348. 

modem,  7-13,  45,  50,   166, 
1-218,  298-304,  313. 
phabet.-^,  123,  175. 
Alps,  Japancwe,  95,  96. 
Ama,  51-58,  162. 
j-Vma-terasu,  .see  Sky-Shine. 
Ambitions,  384-393. 

can  doctrine,  353. 
tomy,  13. 
tor  worship,    165,    166,   238, 

cestry,  65,  108,  115,  166. 
Vndo,  320. 

o- Japanese  Alliance,  333,  369. 
iku,  107,  200. 
ian  Nights,  20. 
Hakuseki,  43,  263. 
i,  297. 

logy,  66-74,  145. 
tecture,    31,    185,    232,    242, 

103,  145,  152. 
ws,  57,  60,  94. 

65,  68,  72,  85,  119,  174,  232- 
240,  282,  397. 
ists,  140,   176,  290. 
iVryan  language,  1,  5. 
an  names,  1-7,  105. 


^^^^-.AQran  names,  1 


Aryan  religion,  210. 

Asakawa,  193. 

Ashikaga,  223-237,  323,  352. 

A.ssa.ssination,   143. 

Aston,  W.  G.,  96. 

Asuka,  121,  122. 

Awabi,  60. 

B 

Bakin,  276,  283. 

Bakufu,  205,  206. 

Banzai,  137. 

Batchelor,  Rev.  John,  4,  5. 

lieggars,  109-111. 

Bell,  Rcar-Adniiral,  64. 

lielLs,  148,  2(K>,  254,  282. 

lierry,  J.  C,  358. 

Blacking  teeth,  39. 

Blending  of  races,  183,  394. 

Boats,  37,  184. 

Bonzes,  169,  228-230. 

Books  on  Japan,  20. 

liooth.  General,  256. 

Ik)xcrs,  367,  368. 

Brinklcy,  Ca{)tain,  20,  278,  337. 

British  fleet,  306,  381. 

Bronze  age,  68. 

Bronzes,  124,  129,  130. 

Browning,  72. 

Buddha,  115. 

Buddhism,  114,  119-132,  157,  185, 

192,    205,    210,    216-218,    228- 

231,  247,  248,  368,397. 
Bureaucracy,  147-150,  195. 
Bashido,   197,  220,  271-284,  293, 

349,  373,  376,  397. 


Calendar,  147,  352,  355. 
Camp,  171,  205,  206,  318. 
401 


402 


INDEX 


Campbell,  M.  A.  G.,  10. 

Cannibalism,  9,  266. 

Capitals,  70,  75,  171,  167,  273. 

Castles,  229,  242,  243. 

Caucasian  types,  4,  98. 

Censors,  65,  224. 

Census,  115,  263,  269. 

Chairs,  33,  34. 

Chamberlain,    B.   H.,   5,   79,    165, 

302,  339. 
Charter  Oath,  324,  334-336. 
Chauvinism,  157,  272. 
Chifu,  364,  365. 
Chimneys,  33. 
China,  11,  21,  134,  395. 
Chinese  characters,  2,  3,  20,   173, 

174. 
Chinese  history,  21. 
Chinese  ideographs,  80,   130,   131. 
Chinese  language,  74. 
Chinese  philosophy,  83,  292-295. 
Cliinese    political    ideas,    145-151, 

153,  352,  355,  359. 
Chinese  rhetoric,  20,  91,  92,  156, 

320. 
Chinese  war,  359-365. 
Chosliiu,  324,  325,  334. 
, Christianity,    131,    132,   229,   246- 

249,  273,  360,  399. 
Clironology,  27,  65,  70. 
Chrysanthemum,  32,  224,  227. 
Chu  Hi,  292. 
Cities,  180. 
Civilizations,  118. 
danism,  146. 
Clay  images,  98,  104. 
Cleanliness,  50,  66,  162. 
Clement,  E.  W.,  291,  307. 
Cock  Robin,  57. 
Codes,  209,  220,  225. 
Colonizing,  305. 
Color  prints,  42,  279. 
Comets,  135. 

Commoners,  270,  276,  386. 
Compass,  84,  186. 
Confucianism,   143,   147,  291-294, 

398. 


Constitution  of  1889,  335,  356,  357, 

389. 
Coohes,  11. 

Copper,  105,  173,  174. 
Coup  d'etat,  143,  332,  336,  395. 
Creation,  50. 
Cremation,  265. 
Crucifixion,  251,  268. 
Culture  wars,   6,  21,   27-29,  291- 

295. 
Curly  hair,  45,  115,  116. 


Dai  Butsu,  124,  204,  205,  264. 
Daimio,   202,   258-261,   264,   319, 

342-344. 
Dancing,  52,  54,  82,  138,  280. 
Dates,  27. 
Decorative  arts,  66-68,  234,  240- 

244,  255. 
Deer,  95. 

Dening,  Walter,  252. 
De  Rosen,  306,  379. 
Deshima,  286. 
De  Witte,  378. 
Diatonic  scale,  84,  281. 
Dickins,  M.  F.,  79,  165,  166. 
Diseases,  264. 
Dissection,  287. 
Divers,  Edward,  345. 
Dogs,  9,  95. 
Dolmens,  57,  64,  68-73,  115,  134, 

144,  145. 
Dragon-fly,  76. 
Dragons,  54,  55,  63. 
Droppers,  Gerritt,  263,  266. 
Drums,  282. 
Duarchy,  201-203,  208,  327,  331, 

332. 
Dutch,  34,  285-288,  335. 
Dyer,  Henry,  345. 


E 


Ear  tomb,  43. 
Ebisu,  see  Ainu. 


INDEX 


403 


Ebisu,  the  idol,  36. 

Echizen,  3,  94,  229,  230,  246,  249, 

288,  293,  319,  321,  330,  334,  335, 

,'J36,  343,  348,  350. 
Eclipse,  53. 
Economics,  53,  172,  189,  225,  264, 

341,  344,  366,  376. 
Education    Department,    80,    308, 

336,  345. 
Effigies,  73,  98,  104. 
Egret,  96. 
Emperor,  102-103. 
Empresses,  105,  143,  170,  261,  262. 
English  scholars,   20,  340,  345. 
Esoterics,  277,  376. 
Eta,  4,  45,  109-116,  287,  322,  348. 
Ethics,  166,  389-383. 
Euphemism,  173. 
Evolution,  50. 

kets,  11,  60. 


Familv. 


'-tales,  14,  48-62,  166,  391. 
&mily,  154,  165,  238,  239. 
Famines,  264-267. 
Fetich,  168. 
Feudalism,     145,     169,      187-194, 

195-204,  224-228,  259,  261,  269, 

328,  342,  343,  394. 
Fillmore,    Millard,    34,     269,    286, 

295,  306,  309,  310,  312,  313,  321, 

375. 
Fire,  52,  93,  168. 
Fire-arms,  246. 
Fire-proofs,  37. 
Fishes,  9,  60,  61. 
Flags,  53,  313,  316. 
FiKxl,  62,  265,  314,  384. 
FcKxl-plains,  180. 
Fcot-ball,  142,  143. 
Forced  labor,  72,  139,  169. 
Formosa,  355,  364-366. 
Forty-seven  Ronins,  275. 
France,  324,  370. 
Eraser,  Mrs.,  280. 
Froes,  27. 


Frontier  theory,  23. 

Frontiers,    6,   51,    145,    178,    180- 

186. 
Fujiwara,  152-155,    179,  188,  192. 
Fujiyama,  3,  90. 
Fukui,  3,  86,  109,  288,  337,  344. 
Fukuzawa,  220. 


G 


Garlic,  95. 

Geisha,  39,  82,  281. 

Genealogy,  58,  65,  97,  161,  163. 

Genghis  Klian,  211. 

Genji,  44,  189. 

Genji  Monogatari,  177,  280. 

Geography,   5,   59,    173,   296-306, 

375. 
Germany,  340,  367,  370. 
Glyn,  226,  308. 
Gods,  25,  33,  45,  52,  251. 
Gold,  9,  174,  178,  245,  297,  298. 
Golownin,  302,  303. 
Goto  Sh impel,  366. 
Gowland,  68. 

Graham,  Secretary,  310,  311. 
Great  Britain,  333,  353,  360,  361, 

367,  381. 

H 
Hades,  54. 

Hair  dressing,  37,  38,  197. 
Hairiness,  12. 
Haniwa,  73,  74,  104. 
Hara-kiri,  219,  329. 
Harris,  Townsend,  316,  323,  328. 
Hashimoto,  112,  288,  290,  319. 
Hats,  37. 
Hayato,  99. 

Headgear,  37,  38,  183,  197. 
Head-hunting,  42-44,  253. 
Hearn,  Lafcadio,  7,  272,  390. 
Heating,  32. 
Heco,  307. 

Heike,  44,  199,  200,  218. 
Hepburn,  277. 
Heredity,  238-239. 


404 


INDEX 


Hermann,  13,  274. 

Hideyori,  254. 

Hideyoshi,  239,  249-252,  352. 

Hi-nin,  109. 

Hiouen  Tsang,  124,  185. 

Historiography,     20-25,     50,     63, 

71,  271-277. 
History,  22-25. 
Hitchcock,  Roni3ni,  68. 
Hitomaro,  166. 
Hojo,  207-218,  221. 
Hokkaido,  8,  17,  297-309. 
Hokusai,  269,  276. 
Holland,  69,  335. 
Hondo,  6,  14,  70,  91. 
Honen,  216,  228. 
Honorifics,  5,  59,  145. 
Horses,  9. 
Hospitals,  268. 
Hotta,  317. 
Houses,  31-36. 


Idzumo,  56,  59,  65. 

li.  Premier,  42,  317-320,  328. 

Imai,  J.  T.,  275. 

Immigration,  7,  183. 

Imperial  House  Law,  262. 

Imperial  tombs,  70. 

Indemnity,    364-366,   376,   379. 

India,   18,  24,   120,  122-124,  216. 

Indians,  N.  A.,  54. 

Indonesians,  17. 

Industrialism,  59,  257. 

Inquisition,  154,  247. 

Interpreters,  308,  309, 

Iroquois,  5,  14,  69. 

Ise,  32,  96. 

Itagaki,  356. 

Italians,  211,  212. 

Ito,  290,  312,  319,  342,  364,  377, 

382,  387. 
Iwakura,  342,  387. 
lyemochi,  318-321. 
lyeyasu,    129,   239,   251,   252-255, 

301,  327. 


"Jap,"  24. 

Japanese  character,  266,  341. 

Japanese  genius,  67,  131,  294. 

Japanese  human  nature,  226. 

Japanese  language,  77-79,  302. 

Jeroboam,  205. 

Jewels,  52,  58,  62,  72,  98. 

Jimmu,  27-29,  63,  104,  165. 

Jingu,  104,  133. 

Ju-jutsu,  39,  277,  278. 

K 

Kadzu  no  Miya,  262,  320,  321. 

Kagura,  54,  83. 

Kamakura,    171,    179,    200,    214, 

296. 
Kami,  162,  163. 
Kana,  106. 
Kano,  244. 

Katsu  Awa,   293,   306,   319,   333. 
Keiki,  318,  331,  332. 
Kempff,  367,  368. 
Kibi,  Rear-Admiral,  106. 
Kim  Ok  Kiun,  361. 
Kioto,  168,  188,  229,  239,  273,  322, 

324,  329,  332. 
Kissing,  39. 
Kiyomori,  155,  199. 
Knox,  Dr.,  217. 
Kobo,  175,  315,  397. 
Kodama,  124,  131,  366. 
Kodzuke,  98,  252. 
Koganei,  13. 
Kojiki,  2,  27,  49. 
Kojiki  (Records),  2,  49,  54,  78. 
Komei,  262,  312. 
Komura,  376-381. 
Korea,  26,  43,  60,  99,  100,  120,  122, 

126,  192,  241,  250,  319,  359-364, 

382. 
Koreans  in  Japan,  142. 
Koshi,  3,  94,  183,  186,  350. 
Koto,  279-281. 
Kow-shing,  362. 
Kuanon,  15. 
Kuanto,  91. 


INDEX 


405 


te  dwellers,  32. 
mdholdiiig,    149,    150,    189-184. 
Land.scape,  120,  122. 
Language,  Ainu,  5. 
Language,   Chinese,   74,   175,  238. 
_Language,   Old    Japanese,   74,   77, 

lage,  Semitic,  74. 
177,  225,  226,  267,  333. 
ler,  46,  114. 
fiction.s,  57,  65,  238. 
,  R.  E.,  3(J8. 
ries,  231,  254. 
ing  Chang,  364. 
)ln,  A.,  108,  112. 
39. 
rature,  170,  175,  235,  276-279. 
It  Tribes,  200. 
^alty,  398. 


element,  30-47,  289 
uya,  296,  304,  305. 
ichuria,  46,  362-365,  371-378. 
ijiro,  307. 

lyo  ix)eni.s,  33,  35,  48,  78. 
•o  Polo,  211. 
?,  63,  268. 
207. 

mmae,  299-305,  308. 
lulev,  Rev.  C,  79. 
^Donald,  RanaUl,  226,  308,  309. 
lical  science,   286-288,  359. 
ji  era,  20,  25,  71,  398. 
idez    Pinto,    245,    246,    256. 
jhants,  258,  330. 

9,  72,  189,  190. 
izane,  85,  177-179. 

Ages,  258,  274. 
Ltions,  30,  44,  49,  59,  301. 
lo,  102-108. 


Mikadoism,  20,  23,   64,  65,    119, 

150-155,  161,  222-225. 
Militarism,  206. 
Minamoto,  107,  202,  207,  250. 
Mirror,  52,  318. 
MLsasagi,  70-74. 
Mi.ssionaries,  341,  400. 
Mito,  294. 

Monasteries,  171,  230. 
Mongolianism,  79,   176,  215,  304, 

396-400. 
Mongols,  129,  209-216,  272. 
Monkey,  58. 
M(jnogatari,  79. 
M(H)n  lore,  50,  53,  54. 
Morals,  65,  166,  258,  389,  391. 
Mounds,  67,  68. 
Mountains,  59. 
Mukden,  370,  372. 
Munrw,  H.  S.,  299. 
Munro,  N.  G.,  26,  47. 
Murd(x-k,  256. 
Muro,  28,  29,  45. 
Murray,  David,  345. 
MiLsic." 52-53,  81-89,  218-220,  235- 

237.  279-284. 
Mastaches,  13. 
Mutf^u,  173. 
.Mutsuhito,  31,  102,  108,  113,  245, 

313,  346,  348,  365. 
Mythology,  2,  161,  391. 


N 


Nagasaki,  251,  356. 

Naka.s<mdo  Road,  94. 

Nakatomi  Kamatari,  142,  144,  152. 

Names,  26,  73,  227. 

Names  of  Japan,  18,  19,  55,  65,  67, 

76,  90. 
Nara,  124,  128,  167. 
NaturaHzation,  116,  117. 
Nature,  87. 
Nav>'.  316,  350,  358. 
Negrito,  44,  111. 
Negroids,  45,  114. 
Neo-Confucianism,   123,  292,  398. 


406 


INDEX 


Nichiren,  216,  217,  228,  247. 

Nijo  castle,  255,  262,  329,  332. 

Nikko,  106,  255. 

Nitobe,  289. 

Nitta,  222,  252. 

Nobunaga,  193,  230,  239,  246-249. 

No,  54,  86,  235. 

Numerals,  53,  111. 

O 

Oath,  40,  259. 
Oceanic  myths,  60-62,  63. 
Odawara,  222,  242. 
Ojin,  104. 

Okakura,  K.,  51,  68,  85. 
Okakura,  Y.,  163,  215. 
Okubo,  294,  342,  345,  387. 
Okuma,  354,  356. 
Oranges,  65,  93. 
Organ,  282. 

Orient  and  Occident,  24,  399. 
Osaka,  64,  134,  230,  243,  370. 
Outcasts,  108-113,  263. 
Oyama,  364,  381. 
Oyomei  philosophy,  112,  292-295, 
319,  347. 


Pagoda,  31,  32,  136. 
Painting,  128,  177,  178. 
Parties,  331. 
.  Peking,  367,  368. 
People,  226. 
Perry,   M.   C,   34,   213,   302,   308, 

311,  312. 
Persecution,  154. 
PersonaUty,   101,   107,  204. 
Phallics,  50. 
Philosophy,  290-295. 
Physicians,  268,  286. 
Physique,  Japanese,  30,  31. 
Piggott,  Mr.   F.  T.,   84,  219,  279. 
Pigmies,  45. 
Piloty,  13,  274. 
Ping  Yang,  363. 
Pit  dwellers,  45-47. 


Pittsburg,  366. 

Place-names,  1-6,  26,  174. 

Poetry,  78,  79. 

Polygamy,  190. 

Polo,  43,  44. 

Population,  245,  263-270,  369. 

Port  Arthur,  350,  370-372. 

Portsmouth,  19,  305,  376-380. 

Portuguese,  230. 

Pottery,  9,  73. 

Pre-Mongolian    Japan,    20-23,    1- 

100. 
Princes,  172,  190. 
Proverbs,  57,  207,  213,  229,  267, 

294. 
Pimishments,  267. 

R 

Railways,  312-314,  374,  375. 

Rain,  137. 

Rai  Sanyo,  85,  277,  319. 

Rebels,  198. 

Red  Cross  Society,  358,  359. 

Regalia,  224. 

Regent,  155,  156,  250. 

Rembrandt,  23. 

Rescripts,  346. 

Revenue,  145-149,  259,  260. 

Revolution,  396. 

Rice,  51,  162,  259,  260. 

Righteousness,  276. 

Rituals,  162,  164. 

Riu  Kiu,  17,  355. 

Rojestvensky,  214,  372,  373. 

Roman  script,  81. 

Ronin,    220,    254,    275,    289-291, 

323. 
Russian  church,  301. 
Russians,    7,    198,    214,    296-306, 
355,  365,  366,  368,  370-378,  398. 
Russian  war,   88,    160,   359,   370- 

378. 
Rutgers  College,  336. 


Saghalien,  7,  296,  304,  355,  376- 
379. 


INDEX 


407 


Saigo,  349. 
Sailors,  350. 

Sakuma,  290,  316,  323,  335. 
Salt,  111,  236. 
SaraLsen,  281. 

Samurai,   196,  209,  342.  349,  397. 
ijo,  317. 

ktsuma,  40,  55,  59,  64,  241,  249, 
259,  334,  343,  347,  348. 
ibbards,  41. 
lools,  231. 
ipturcs,  126-128. 
sulpture,  122,  124. 
;recy,  272. 
litic  language,  74. 
dai,  see  the  illustration, 
ill  heaps,  14,  65,  73,  91. 
Izuoka,  254. 
Imonoseki,  311,  324,  329. 
imo-sa,  246,  345. 
inran,  216-218,  228. 
into,  153,  157,  159-166. 
temple,  32,  47. 
run,  187,   198,  208,  250,  318- 
330. 
)toku,  121,  139. 
mese,  6. 

;nt  Concerts.  236. 
iplicity,  67,  234. 
tting,  33-35. 
Cy-Shine,  51-55,  163. 
,-erv,  49,  96. 

J,  154. 
)ke,  33. 
clan,  121,  133-144,  183. 
Yemisiii,  72,  122,  134-144. 
1,260. 

igs,  28,  29,  86,  92. 
li,  289,  364. 
^ereignties,   70,    145. 
resliima,  354,  356. 
lin,  131,  246,  351. 
miards,  241,  242. 
rits  of  ancestors,  67,  102.  381. 
itlstics,  35,   114,   263-265,  269, 
J69. 
iture.  35. 


Stone  age,  26,  90-100. 

Students  abroad,  134,  185. 

Sugita  Gempaku,  287. 

Suicide,  219,  220,  390. 

Suiko,  101,  121. 

.Sun-godde.ss,  gee  Sky-Shine. 

Surveys,  260. 

Susa-no-o,  51. 

Swords,  54,  58,  67,  93,   164,  197, 

213,  220,  222,  238,  320. 
Sword  worsliip,  40,  41. 


Taira,  107,  1.54,  1.55,  246. 
Takachilx),  .59. 
Takaiiira,  376,  377. 
Tukamine,  246,  345. 
Tamura,  186,  187. 
'1  "aoi.sin,  292, 
Tattooing,  42. 
Ta.xation,  112,  149,  150,  193,  225, 

228. 
Teeth,  39. 
Tcnchi,  142,  151. 
Teimo,  102,  103. 
Teashi,  102,  103. 
Ten  Shu  Dai,  243. 
Terpen,  69. 
Theatre,  276. 

Thompson,  Rev.  David,  74. 
Throne,  140. 
Togo,  59,  181,  214,  290,  319,  362, 

370-373,  380,  381. 
Tokaido,  98,  110,279. 
Tokimune,  209,  212-214. 
Tokio,  91,  93,  379,  380. 
Tokugawa,  226,  248,  260,  267,  392. 
Tonality,  87,  88. 
Tong  haks,  360-361. 
Traders,  258. 
Treaties,  261,  314,  329. 
Tsukuba,  319,  382. 
Tsushima,  306. 
Timiuli,  66-70. 
Tycoon,  187. 


408 


INDEX 


U 

Ukio-ye,  42,  279. 
Under  Shine,  56. 
Unebi,  64,  141. 
Uniformity,  6. 
University,  Imperial,  315. 
Uzimie,  52,  58,  82,  281,  312. 


Vegetarianism,  106,  114. 
Verbeck,  G.  F.,  342,  345,  347,  354. 
Village  assemblies,  53,  55,  60. 

W 

Washington,  151,  154,  293. 

Whalers,  307. 

White  men,  10,  11,  25. 

White  race,  1-15,  25. 

WiUiams,  S.  Wells,  314. 

Willis,  Dr.,  333. 

Wo-jin,  211,  363. 

Woman,  38,  88,  93,  106,  166-168, 
170,  176,  177,  183,  200,  207,  218, 
226,  268,  300,  318,  359. 

Woman  Mikados,  105,  106,  170; 
261,  262. 

Writing,  70,  123,  126-128. 


X 


Xavier,  246. 


Yamagata,  28,  367,  378. 
Yamato,  3,  26,  49,  64,  71,  75,  128, 

383 
Yamato  Dake,  40,  91-96,  313. 
Yamato  Damashii,  74-89. 
Yatoi,  316,  336-342. 
Yebisu,  see  Ainu. 
Yedo,  Bay,  93. 
Yedo,  aty,  3,  91,  249. 
Yemishi,  see  Ainu. 
Yezo,  6,  7. 
Yezo   Island,    184,    186,   297-309, 

355. 
Yokohama,  93. 

Yokoi,  110,  112,  288,  293,  321,  322. 
Yoritomo,  44,   129,   130,  200-206. 
Yoshida,  290,  291,  319. 
Yoshino,  64. 
Yoshitsime,  200. 
Yuri  Kinmasa,  293,  321,  322,  334, 

356. 


Zenism,  233. 


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C  2  3  2000 

RM  NO.  DD6 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 

BERKELEY,  CA  94720 

(g)$ 


aC   BFRKELEY  LIBRARIES 

"■■ ■"Illf 


CDsaa^^flMfl 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


